Alaskan Marine Protected Areas - Opportunity for Indigenous - Co-management Using Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom

George Owletuck

Alaska Oceans Network, ANCHORAGE, USA

Theme: TH1

The North Pacific groundfish fisheries are being managed without regard for the health of Alaska’s marine ecosystems or of indigenous communities. The North Pacific is one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world. Subsistence use of marine species has sustained Alaska Natives and our cultures for millennia. However, this now may be at risk. Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce concluded that many U.S. fisheries are overfished; including Alaska’s oceans. Dramatic declines in the Bering Sea populations of sea lions, fur seals, harbor seals, spotted seals, sea otters, crab, shrimp, salmon and numerous species of sea birds, are compelling indicators of an ecosystem in trouble. The sustained and precipitous declines of these marine species in the North Pacific are the direct result of adverse environmental circumstances combined with fisheries mismanagement; in which maximizing the quantity of fish harvested is allowed with little thought of the effect of high volume fishing on other species or Alaska’s indigenous communities. The magnitude of the decline of fish and wildlife in the Bering Sea is a serious and immediate threat to the viability of indigenous coastal and river cultures throughout Alaska. The survival of marine species and that of Alaska’s indigenous peoples rely on healthy marine ecosystems. An ecosystem-based strategy to preserve the productivity of the North Pacific ecosystem must be developed. The establishment of marine protected areas in Alaska, where coastal indigenous communities co-manage the MPAs using Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom on an equal basis with Science, is in order.