Fisheries in the Pacific Northwest: Biology and Political Ecology

Resource use in the Pacific Northwest is characterized by close and complex connections between ecological systems, socio-political systems, and cultural systems. In this program we will explore culture, politics, society, and ecology through the lens of fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. Our focus will be on Indigenous fisheries, exploring their history, cultural significance, management, and the socio-political systems that have influenced them from pre-colonial times through the present day.

Students will be introduced to fisheries biology including ecology, population biology, and fish stock restoration. We will cover basic quantitative techniques in ecology and the study of harvested populations. Indigenous fisheries are dynamic and we will look at this history from pre-colonial community-based management through the European management model to present management models that have attempted to recapture some of the sustainable, community-focused elements from those early fisheries. Effective fisheries management requires bringing together a variety of people with different goals and values so this program will cover environmental problem solving, introducing students to different frameworks and discussing the basic psychology behind this process.

Students will also be introduced to political ecology, which is an analytical framework for studying nature-society interactions that is attentive to power dynamics and how they shape environmental change and discourses about them. Questions about who has power and who is marginalized, and consequently who benefits and who loses from particular governance frameworks, environmental narratives, and policy solutions, are important in political ecology. In the context of PNW fisheries, we will examine the history of settler colonialism and consequent struggles for self-determination on part of Native tribes and nations and how these historical and contemporary power dynamics have impacted fishing rights as well as fish stock in the region. We will also examine how PNW fisheries are related to cultural identity, Indigenous sovereignty, health, and contested ideas about nature, sustainability, and development.

In this program students will build analytical and critical skills through readings, workshops, case studies, films, and writing assignments.