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Environmental Quality in the Gulf of Maine |
Winter 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Tour highlights the zeal of small-scale fisheries
Community-based management began as a grassroots effort in response to the growing trend in Canada and the United States to privatize fisheries resources. While privatization can have short-term benefits to certain harvesters in some communities, in the longer term it leans toward corporate ownership and steep decline for the coastal communities where small small-scale fisheries serve as the backbone of the local economy. For those involved with community-based management, the well-being of both the fishing communities and the ocean are paramount. Nowadays, there are many different ways for local people that work in the field of community-based management to become stewards of local resources. They include creating harvesting plans, conducting fisheries science and devising marketing plans. Of course people working in the field of community-based management can do a better job when they are able to meet with others doing similar work elsewhere. Thats where the idea for a Turning the Tides Tour, 2003 came from. A group of about 20 people involved in community-based management in communities around the Bay of Fundy hopped on a bus in Nova Scotia, crossed over to visit communities in New Brunswick where people are working on these issues, then motored down to visit others doing the same in coastal communities in Maine and on Cape Cod.
Those aboard the bus included native and nonnative people from both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada. The tour was part of a Pew Fellowship granted to Dr. Tony Charles of Saint Marys University in Halifax, and involved the transboundary Saltwater Network, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance based in Saco, Maine, Saint Marys University and the Centre for Community-Based Management at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. We began our tour on the evening of September 8 with introductions at the Acadia First Nation in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, before heading to Digby County for workshops on building strong fisheries organizations, conflict resolution, community economic development and other topics. After an early-evening sail on the Digby-Saint John ferry and a night of rest, the bus pulled up to the wharf at Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick, where we were met by Greg Thompson and other members of the Fundy North Fishermens Association. Later, at a seniors hall in nearby Maces Bay, we discussed efforts in local scallop management and met with Hugh Akagi, chief of the Passamaquoddy First Nation. After a night at Salty Towers, a bed and breakfast in St. Andrews, we crossed the border to Eastport, Maine and visited the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, where we were greeted by Will Hopkins and other staff members. We learned from Will and his colleagues about the centers efforts involving scientific research, as well as its cooperative work with clammers and scallopers. The next day saw us farther south along the Maine coast at Stonington on Penobscot Bay. We gathered at the local hall where more than 50 people from the Stonington Fisheries Alliance and other interested citizens shared a chowder supper as well as their ideas on, and experiences in, community-based management. The next morning, we sailed across Penobscot Bay aboard the Sunbeam, a vessel owned by the Maine Sea Coast Missionary Society. The society provides religious and medical services to people living in small communities along the coast and on Maines offshore islands. The Rev.Ted Hoskins serves as the societys minister to coastal communities and the fisheries. Through the Society, we do our best to see that pastoral services are provided to people in these isolated communities and make sure that we tend to the needs of these communities as a whole, he explained. We next stopped in Saco, Maine where we met with Craig Pendelton from the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, to talk about marketing alternatives and other topics. Craig was involved in developing the Portland Fish Exchange, which was set up in the 1990s and is owned by a non-profit organization managed by the City of Portland. The Portland Fish Exchange, Craig said, has changed the way fish is sold in the state. By paying attention to [community-based management] principles, the exchange has overcome the initial skepticism of fishermen to such a degree that today 90 percent of Maines fish landings go through there.
On September 17, the final day of the tour, we made our way to the New England Aquarium on the Boston waterfront for a reception and panel discussion. Arthur Bull of the Saltwater Network summed up some of the lessons wed learned: Each community has its own unique situation, and practitioners of community-based management have to adapt their strategies to each of those unique situations, Arthur said. But despite this diversity, there are common themes and principles we all share. One is that we must all take responsibility for our future and steward our resources so they are there for our grandchildren.
After a drive north to Portland, we boarded the ferry for the overnight crossing back to Yarmouth. We parted the next morning knowing we had forged new friendships, both on the bus and in the communities we visited. And we all went back to our homes, our offices and our coastal communities better schooled to deal with a future that includes community-based opportunities for the next generation and beyond.
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