A Half Century in the Making: Governing Commercial Fisheries Through Indigenous Marine Co-management and the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board

Equitable Allocations in Northern Fisheries: Bridging the Divide for Labrador Inuit

“…Despite the dynamic and ambitious goals of the TJFB in the first years of its establishment, as well as its efforts to foster both Western Science and IK in decision-making, its effectiveness in ensuring a fair allocation of marine resources to Nunatsiavut has been limited. Snook et al (2018) attribute this, in part, to the "newness" of the Board and Nunatsiavut itself as a self-governance region (since 2005) as well as to the uncertainties in establishing relationships with provincial and federal bodies.…”

“…Nunatsiavut is located at the northern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador on the east coast of Canada (Figure 1), covering an area of about 72,520 km 2 of land and inland waters, 48,690 km 2 of sea (adjacent tidal waters) with 15,000 km of coastline along the Labrador Sea (CIRNAC, 2005;Snook et al, 2018). About 5% (2,325) of the population identifying as Indigenous in Inuit Nunangat, the homeland of Inuit (ITK, 2019), lives in Northern Labrador, the Inuit Land Claims Settlement Area of Nunatsiavut, according to the 2011 National Household Survey and the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (Statistics Canada, 2016).…”

“…Nunatsiavut's socioeconomic objectives associated with the fisheries sector often are at odds with those of the federal and the provincial governments. In addition, the current allocation system for commercial fisheries in Nunatsiavut creates a sense of unfairness, inequity, and marginalization among local harvesters (Snook et al, 2018), most of whom have an Inuit identity background.…”

Conceptualizing indicators as boundary objects in integrating Inuit knowledge and western science for marine resource management

“…Additionally, fisheries management is not always in accordance with the desired conservation and social outcomes, sometimes resulting in different approaches to conservation of fish stocks. In Northern Labrador for example, despite the Minister's decision to not reduce the TAC for snow crab in 2014, the Nunatsiavut Government decided to voluntarily hold back 15% of the communal quota in fear of a potentially declining stock (Snook et al 2018). This self-imposed precautionary proposition for the snow crab stock, to which Nunatsiavut has exclusive access, was overall well-received and uncontested.…”

“…Across Inuit Nunangat, there exist similar co-management structures for marine resources access, some of which have been mentioned above, including the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board, the Eeyou Marine Region Wildlife Board, the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board, and the Inuvialuit Fisheries Joint Management Committee. Yet despite the strength of the co-management processes, the allocation of property rights for commercial fishing activities can create a sense of unfairness, inequity and marginalization, particularly when considering the allocation of adjacent resources to Inuit groups, which falls far below the national average (Snook et al 2018(Snook et al , 2019. In addition to the benefits of co-management, Inuit-owned enterprises like the Qikiqtani Fisheries Alliance in Nunavut, and the Torngat Fish Producers Cooperative in Nunatsiavut, are paramount examples of industry entities designed to distribute benefits from the use of marine resources, among community members.…”