Warming-driven changes in Arctic fish communities must not leave local Indigenous communities out in the cold
2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 4; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.oneear.2021.11.020
ISSN2590-3330
Autores Tópico(s)Marine animal studies overview
ResumoIn a recent paper published in Current Biology, McLean et al. described the loss of cold-affinity species as a conservation issue for fished Arctic marine ecosystems. Here, we argue that listening to and working with local Indigenous Peoples is essential to manage potential impacts and support their adaptation to such changes. In a recent paper published in Current Biology, McLean et al. described the loss of cold-affinity species as a conservation issue for fished Arctic marine ecosystems. Here, we argue that listening to and working with local Indigenous Peoples is essential to manage potential impacts and support their adaptation to such changes. The recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) focused on the Arctic in great detail, and rightly so. For decades, communities across the Arctic have bore witness to changes in sea ice timing, distribution, thickness and extent, issues in food availability, changes in wildlife and plant species, and alterations in the abundance of commercial fish stocks.1Meredith M. Sommerkorn M. Cassotta S. Derksen C. Ekaykin A. Hollowed A. et al.Polar regions.in: Pörtner H.-O. Roberts D.C. Masson-Delmotte V. Zhai P. Tignor M. Poloczanska E. IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019: 203-320Google Scholar These changes have caused personal safety issues, food security concerns, shifts in cultural continuity and knowledge sharing, and changes in mental health related to climate change.2Cunsolo A. Ellis N.R. Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss.Nat. Clim. Chang. 2018; 8: 275-281Crossref Scopus (300) Google Scholar At the nexus of Arctic fisheries and climate change, research has focused predominantly on large-scale changes in fish distribution and abundance; the resulting social, economic, and cultural implications to fisheries associated with these changes; and whether we meet climate targets3Sumaila U.R. Tai T.C. Lam V.W.Y. Cheung W.W.L. Bailey M. Cisneros-Montemayor A.M. Chen O.L. Gulati S.S. Benefits of the Paris Agreement to ocean life, economies, and people.Sci. Adv. 2019; 5: u3855Crossref Scopus (47) Google Scholar,4Tai T.C. Steiner N.S. Hoover C. Cheung W.W.L. Sumaila U.R. Evaluating present and future potential of arctic fisheries in Canada.Mar. Policy. 2019; 108Crossref Scopus (14) Google Scholar. Overwhelmingly, this is discussed in terms of poleward shifts of species that prefer warm temperatures: as the ocean warms, the suitable habitat for warm-affinity species increases, and they move to fill that gap (what the community calls tropicalization), while concurrently leaving areas that may become too warm for their current temperature preferences. With poleward shifts of species with higher thermal affinity, the Arctic may be seen as an opportunity for increasing large-scale and industrial commercial fisheries. With a warming ocean and increased ship accessibility, an Arctic fisheries expansion may be one possible climate future.4Tai T.C. Steiner N.S. Hoover C. Cheung W.W.L. Sumaila U.R. Evaluating present and future potential of arctic fisheries in Canada.Mar. Policy. 2019; 108Crossref Scopus (14) Google Scholar However, this is not the only possibility. In a paper recently published in Current Biology,5McLean M. Mouillot D. Maureaud A.A. Hattab T. MacNeil M.A. Goberville E. Lindegren M. Engelhard G. Pinsky M. Auber A. Disentangling tropicalization and deborealization in marine ecosystems under climate change.Curr. Biol. 2021; 31: 4817-4823.e5Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar Mclean and colleagues investigated mechanisms underlying changes in the community temperature index (CTI), a measure of the mean thermal affinity of a fish community. Their work showed that the increase in the CTI of Arctic fish communities may not be due to this influx of warm-affinity species, but due to a loss of cold-affinity species (what they call deborealization). In assessing the various underlying mechanisms for changes in CTI across several ecosystems, the authors found that up to one third of increases in CTI were due to this loss of cold-affinity species. As the authors point out, this could mean that higher-latitude regions may disproportionately suffer the loss of cold-affinity species. Significantly, in fact, the authors found that fished species generally declined more than unfished species, particularly so in the contexts of deborealization. Climate change could then mean not a fisheries expansion, but in fact a synergistic impact whereby currently fished species in northern latitudes are at an increased risk to suffer declines in the transition to warmer marine ecosystems. This may be particularly problematic given that fish, seafood, and marine mammals are vital in the diets and livelihoods of northern Indigenous Peoples,6Inuit Circumpolar CouncilFood Security across the Arctic: Background paper of the Steering Committee of the Circumpolar Inuit Health Strategy. Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada, 2012: 1-12Google Scholar and also provide opportunities for economic development in coastal communities.7Natcher, D., Yang, Y., Hobbs, J., Hansen, K., Govaerts, F., Elde, S., Kvalvik, I., Nøstvold, B.H., Rødbotten, R., Dalmannsdottir, S., et al. (2019). The Arctic as a Food Producing Region: Final Project Report Prepared for the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group February 2019. (The Arctic Council). pp. 1–21.Google Scholar Food and economic security, culture, and well-being in the circumpolar North depend on the availability of marine species. Deborealization was one of four mechanisms McClean et al. explored for changes in CTI, with the others being tropicalization, borealization, and detropicalization. In a recent perspective piece responding to the McClean et al. paper, Stuart-Smith8Stuart-Smith R.D. Climate change: Large-scale abundance shifts in fishes.Curr. Biol. 2021; 31: R1445-R1447Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar highlights that knowing which one, or combination, of these mechanisms will prevail in different ecosystems is a challenge and will require additional research at different scales. But they also state that regardless of the unknown, “science and management solutions are quickly needed to direct society towards a more sustainable future in warmer seas.”8Stuart-Smith R.D. Climate change: Large-scale abundance shifts in fishes.Curr. Biol. 2021; 31: R1445-R1447Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar We could not agree more. We argue that regardless of what mechanisms are responsible for changes in Arctic fish communities (deborealization versus tropicalization, for example), it is essential to listen to and work with Indigenous Peoples, communities, organizations, and governments and act to ensure sustainable and self-determined Indigenous futures. Taking a Canadian perspective, we lay out several necessary steps that are being asked for by fishers, communities, leaders, Elders, and governments across Inuit Nunangat (Inuit homelands in what is now known as Canada) so that regardless of why CTIs across the Circumpolar North might increase, Inuit are ready and able to adapt. Below we highlight several needs, including increased self-determination (including self-government over resources), access to fish and means of production, respect for Indigenous knowledge, and better policy coherence between fish and food. Self-determination: Overwhelmingly, what is required to support resilient and thriving Inuit communities across the North is increased self-determination, including self-government over lands, waters, and fish (and resources more generally). Across Inuit Nunangat, a series of co-management boards have been set up under various Land Claims Agreements. Co-management represents a notable departure to how most fisheries are managed in the south, but it does not go far enough in recognizing and respecting Inuit decisions and recommendations in fisheries management.9Snook J. Akearok J. Palliser T. Cunsolo A. Hoover C. Bailey M. Enhancing fisheries co-management in the Eastern Arctic.North. Public Aff. 2019; : 70-74Google Scholar In fact, in some places the Land Claims Agreements themselves prevent commercialization of traditional or country foods, limiting self-government over marine food production and sale.7Natcher, D., Yang, Y., Hobbs, J., Hansen, K., Govaerts, F., Elde, S., Kvalvik, I., Nøstvold, B.H., Rødbotten, R., Dalmannsdottir, S., et al. (2019). The Arctic as a Food Producing Region: Final Project Report Prepared for the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group February 2019. (The Arctic Council). pp. 1–21.Google Scholar Working with Indigenous Peoples, Canada has the constitutional obligation to recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to work to support self-government over fish for Inuit in the Arctic and Subarctic. Increased access: Many of the opportunities for commercial fishing in Inuit Nunangat take place through the allocations of quotas, managed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Canada. In many cases, these allocations fall short of achieving DFO’s own adjacency principle, whereby those who are adjacent to the resource are those who most benefit from access to it. Calls to redirect access via quota allocation have come from the three eastern Arctic co-management boards,9Snook J. Akearok J. Palliser T. Cunsolo A. Hoover C. Bailey M. Enhancing fisheries co-management in the Eastern Arctic.North. Public Aff. 2019; : 70-74Google Scholar for example, with equity outcomes being modeled under increasing allocation schemes.10Kourantidou M. Hoagland P. Dale A. Bailey M. Equitable Allocations in Northern Fisheries: Bridging the Divide for Labrador Inuit.Front. Mar. Sci. 2021; 8Crossref Scopus (10) Google Scholar In a similar vein, improved access to means of production and markets,11Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Food Sovereignty and Harvesting.Qikiqtani Inuit Association. 2019; : 1-24Google Scholar including infrastructure, is necessary, as access to fish alone is insufficient to benefit from it.12Bodwitch H. Challenges for New Zealand’s individual transferable quota system: Processor consolidation, fisher exclusion, & Māori quota rights.Mar. Policy. 2017; 80: 88-95Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar Respect Inuit knowledge: Overwhelmingly, fisheries management continues to be dominated by western science and western knowledge systems, which do not reflect Inuit sciences, knowledge systems, ontologies, and ways of knowing and doing. Respect for and real efforts (including provision of funding) to transition to an Inuit knowledge paradigm to lead in the research, management, conservation, and use of marine resources is necessary.9Snook J. Akearok J. Palliser T. Cunsolo A. Hoover C. Bailey M. Enhancing fisheries co-management in the Eastern Arctic.North. Public Aff. 2019; : 70-74Google Scholar For example, youth from four Nunavut communities worked as part of a team to develop a set of 45 recommendations around how researchers can incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (a particular form of Inuit Knowledge and way of life specific to Nunavut), to do science and research in a meaningful way.13Pedersen C. Otokiak M. Koonoo I. Milton J. Porter G. Aaluk T. et al.ScIQ: An invitation and recommendations to combine science and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit for meaningful engagement of inuit communities in research.Arct. Sci. 2020; 6: 326-339Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar Fish and food: Repositioning the fisheries-climate change nexus in the Arctic as a food-climate change nexus means fisheries and food policies need better coherence. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK, the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada) has laid out an Inuit Nunangat Food Policy Strategy,14Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy.Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. 2021; 56Google Scholar wherein they identify climate change as part of a suite of interrelated drivers of food insecurity. Fish is positioned in various ways, not just as a country food source, but also for use in hatcheries, and as an economic driver due to the fact that many commercial fisheries operating across the region are Inuit-owned. Ensuring that fisheries policies—be they federal, regional, or local—link strongly with food policy is an important first step.15Kourantidou M. Hoagland P. Bailey M. Inuit food insecurity as a consequence of fragmented marine resource management policies? Emerging lessons from Nunatsiavut.Arctic. 2021; 74: 41-49Google Scholar The work of McLean and others studying the mechanisms for marine ecosystem change under a changing climate is commendable. Using this valuable knowledge to anticipate impacts on local communities is a very urgently needed step forward. As Stuart-Smith contends,8Stuart-Smith R.D. Climate change: Large-scale abundance shifts in fishes.Curr. Biol. 2021; 31: R1445-R1447Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar regardless of the mechanisms and resulting ecosystem outcomes, concrete actions—such as the recent International Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean—are needed across the Circumpolar North today to ensure that Northern Indigenous Peoples are able to prepare and adapt. Recognition of the rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and concrete implementation of what they are asking for are needed today so that the future of warmer (Arctic) seas is a future that supports flourishing Northern Indigenous Peoples and communities. We would like to thank Melina Kourantidou, Carie Hoover, Hekia Bodwitch, Rachael Cadman, and Tiff-Annie Kenny for collaborations and conversations related to fisheries and food across Inuit Nunangat. M.B. and J.S. acknowledge support from the Ocean Frontier Institute, through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and M.B. acknowledges the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center for support. Disentangling tropicalization and deborealization in marine ecosystems under climate changeMcLean et al.Current BiologySeptember 8, 2021In BriefUsing long-term monitoring of marine fishes across the Northern Hemisphere, McLean et al. show that one-third of increases in mean thermal affinity were primarily due to decreases in cold-affinity species. Cold-affinity decreases were stronger closer to human population centers; warm-affinity increases were stronger in warmer areas. Full-Text PDF Open Archive
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