The British Columbia fishery is in crisis. Environmental conditions and problems with the management of the fishing resource have led to a significant reduction in stocks and created serious economic problems in the industry. Women's work is central to the fishery yet it is often unpaid, underpaid and undervalued. Policies guiding the restructuring of the industry do not take into account the unique circumstances of women in the industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve the understanding about the ways fishery policy impacts the lives of women in the fishing communities of BC. The question posed: What is the experience of women in the BC Fisheries during a climate of crisis and change? A feminist approach is applied to this qualitative study. Unstructured interviews were conducted with a sample of nine women who have worked in the industry and are impacted by closures and cutbacks. Findings reveal a devastating magnitude of loss for these women and their families; a great mistrust of the motives of the Federal government and its policies; and a multitude of strategies used in their struggle for survival. The critical inequities in the fishing industry make this study particularly relevant to social work. Further research is warranted to develop adjustment, programs that address these inequalities and meet the needs of women in the coastal communities of BC. Limitations of thisstudy and suggestions for future research are discussed in the light of these findings.

This is a study of the human conflict over fish in late nineteenth and early twentieth century British Columbia, and of how that conflict was shaped by law. Law, understood broadly to include both the legal forms of the Canadian state and those of Native peoples, defined and in part created both Native and state fisheries. When those fisheries clashed, one finds conflict between legal systems. When one fishery sought to replace the other, its laws had to replace the other. Thus, this is a study of law and colonialism, seen through a close analysis of the conflict over fish. Native fisheries and the web of regulation surrounding them preceded non-Native interest in British Columbia's fish. The fishery was not an open-access resource, but rather a commons, defined by entitlements, prohibitions and sanctions that allowed certain activity, proscribed others, permitted one group to catch fish at certain times in particular locations with particular technology, and prohibited others. The Canadian state denied the legitimacy and even the existence of Native fisheries law in imposing its law on the fishery. This study, based largely on government records and a secondary anthropological literature, describes the legal apparatus constructed by the Canadian state to reduce Native control of the fisheries in British Columbia through the creation, in law, of the "Indian food fishery". Law became a means of constructing a particular economic and social order that marginalized Native participation in the fishery and eliminated Native control. It was a "rhetoric of legitimation" that supported state domination, but also local resistance. Native peoples and their supporters used law, both Native and state law, to defend their fisheries. The history of the conflict over fish is the history of competing legal cultures, and the struggle on the Cowichan River and the Babine River over fish weirs reveals those cultures, constructed in opposition to each other. The study concludes by integrating the local conflicts over fish into a wider literature on law and colonialism, reflecting on the role of law in particular colonial settings.

Conventional fisheries management has appeared to be at odds with the rights of Native people in the Province of British Columbia. At the same time many Native Bands want to focus on the salmon fishery for economic and cultural revival. The combination of these two factors with growing management problems for the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has, for some Bands resulted in efforts toward cooperative management (co-management) of the resource. This thesis analyzes the outcomes of efforts towards co-management of one Band (Ditidaht, at Nitinaht Lake), and evaluates its effectiveness in the early stages of implementation. The thesis includes both a literature review and a case study that describes the Band's efforts at local control in light of their developing property rights, made stronger by recent court cases. It also describes how the DFO has responded to these developments, and how both groups attempted to keep the process directed toward improved fisheries management. The literature review reveals that while there are a number of advantages to the practice of co-management over conventional systems, there also a number of challenges that face local groups attempting this practice. The case study focuses particular attention on how the Ditidaht Band has responded to these challenges. Strategies used by the Ditidaht Band and the DFO, in response to increasing property;. . rights of the Band, to better manage the salmon fishery and to overcome barriers to the exercise of co-management are documented and analyzed. These strategies have generally evolved from concern for the conservation of salmon on the part of both parties. For the Ditidaht these strategies also involved a search for economic development opportunities. Outcomes of the efforts of the two parties are also analyzed in terms of propositions about co-management set out in the literature. It is concluded that the DFO has been reluctant to grant the Ditidaht control over fisheries management functions and appear to have done so done so reluctantly, and only as a result of recent court cases. Because of this Ditidaht input has been kept to a minimum and basically only involves enforcement. As for the Ditidaht Band, it has not taken full advantage of alliances with other parties as a mechanism for enhancing its control over the resource. The Band has also generally not responded to the importance of internal cohesion by establishing a forum for solving disputes over allocation. They have also failed to see the importance of using public concern for conservation as a strategic tool. The case study highlights the importance of looking beyond short-term interests, in this case economic development, in order to become self-sufficient in the long-term. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) from six hatcheries operated by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans Salmonid Enhancement Project, were reared in a common facility and then subjected to a series of standardized challenge tests. Results suggest that there are genetically based differences in the response to stressful challenges among stocks of coho salmon from southern British Columbia. The challenge tests were: saltwater (30ppt); saltwater and an increase in temperature (30ppt and 4°C); high pH (9.4 and 10.0); low pH (3.55, 3.65, 3.75 and 4.1); thermal tolerance (1°C/h); and handling (30s netting). The measured parameters were plasma sodium and chloride ion concentrations for the saline and pH challenges, time to dysfunction in the thermal tolerance challenge and plasma glucose concentration in the handling challenge. No differences among stocks were found in responses to the high pH and thermal tolerance challenges. The Chehalis River stock had the smallest plasma ion increase in salt water but showed the largest plasma ion decrease in acidic waters. In some of the low pH challenges the Tenderfoot Creek stock showed less plasma ion loss than other stocks. The stock from Eagle River had the lowest plasma glucose concentration increase during handling challenges. The combined saltwater and temperature increase challenge demonstrated the cumulative effect that stressors can have. Sampling associated with the handling challenges revealed a diurnal fluctuation in resting plasma glucose concentrations. The low pH and handling challenges showed that stock performance and the magnitude of the response observed varied with rearing conditions. Although there was some variation in the magnitude of the stock response to challenges between the two rearing conditions used, differences among stocks were consistent. When the response to all challenges were assembled into a relative challenge response profile (or performance profile), each stock was unique. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

The rapid 1980's development of the salmon farming industry in British Columbia has been called "a poorly defined experiment in a poorly understood coastal environment", and the main impetus behind it described as "the chaotic, bottom-line orientation" not only of the industry itself but also of relevant government policy. The purpose of this thesis is to elaborate on these themes by identifying and delineating the most significant reasoning models underlying government development policy; and to offer an evaluation of the policy's 'rationality'. Throughout the development of the industry, but particularly in the early stages, two major areas of uncertainty have been prevalent. First, detailed government policy towards salmon farming has been far from clear - an inarticulation that is characteristic of the philosophy of laissez faire, which was particularly influential in Canadian government policy in the early 1980's. Secondly, a variety of possible ecological impacts have been suspected from the outset. A heuristic approach, both for the basic method employed in the thesis and for the normative model set up to evaluate government policy, is advanced for addressing these different uncertainties. In order to identify relevant policy, it is hypothesized that systems of ideas expressed formally in 'core' models of neoconservative and neoclassical economics were particularly important policy influences. It is argued that the core concept of neoconservative theory (as defined) is the adaptive efficiency of the autonomous market. The theory's fundamental adaptive ideas - economic information 'discovery' by competitive trial-and-error selection, and consumer 'regulation' via the price system - are to be found in representative federal and provincial economic policy documents from the early 1980's, as well as in the occasional government elucidations of B.C. salmon farming policy (scattered in heterogeneous historical sources). An examination of (inferred) specific decisions relevant to ecological aspects of salmon farming reveals the influence of trial-and-error - deliberate omission of government planning - on early salmon farm siting policy; and the influence of the presumption of consumer 'sovereignty', which was assumed to obviate the need for government ecological regulation. The relevant core concept of neoclassical economics (as defined) is the rational model derived from the conception of homo economicus. The model and its derivations are visible in the same early 1980's economic policy documents, which outline public sector 'restraint' criteria, as well as in salmon farming policy elucidations. It is argued that the maximizing 'solution' prescribed by the model is without operational significance in complex, uncertain situations, where ostensible use of the formal technique may be to legitimate decisions taken on other grounds. The normative model set up to evaluate government policy is drawn from three sources: Friedrich Hayek's rationalization of the adaptive market process, C.S. Holling's prescriptions for "adaptive environmental assessment and management", and Herbert Simon's development of "procedural rationality". These models support the conclusion that acquisition of information by the agency that mediates actions and goals - which, in the case of ecological regulation, must be government - has major value as the basis of more rational decisions. But acquiring conclusive evidence by trial-and-error learning involves risk of serious error, particularly irreversible ecological harm, and it is rational to utilize the inconclusive evidence that is always available for making general predictions, in order to guide search and select lesser risks. Incorporating the important constraint of search costs - particularly significant in the economic recession of the early 1980's - the requirements for rational adaptation become minimal, procedural ones of 'reasonableness': lack of bias towards any class of information relevant to social welfare; lack of denial of uncertainties, and thus of development risks, in the complex and little-known salmon farming environment; and timely response to uncertainties subsequently, adequately resolved by experience. It is suggested that all three requirements were infringed by government policy towards salmon farming development. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

This is a study of the human conflict over fish in late nineteenth and early twentieth century British Columbia, and of how that conflict was shaped by law. Law, understood broadly to include both the legal forms of the Canadian state and those of Native peoples, defined and in part created both Native and state fisheries. When those fisheries clashed, one finds conflict between legal systems. When one fishery sought to replace the other, its laws had to replace the other. Thus, this is a study of law and colonialism, seen through a close analysis of the conflict over fish. Native fisheries and the web of regulation surrounding them preceded non-Native interest in British Columbia's fish. The fishery was not an open-access resource, but rather a commons, defined by entitlements, prohibitions and sanctions that allowed certain activity, proscribed others, permitted one group to catch fish at certain times in particular locations with particular technology, and prohibited others. The Canadian state denied the legitimacy and even the existence of Native fisheries law in imposing its law on the fishery. This study, based largely on government records and a secondary anthropological literature, describes the legal apparatus constructed by the Canadian state to reduce Native control of the fisheries in British Columbia through the creation, in law, of the "Indian food fishery". Law became a means of constructing a particular economic and social order that marginalized Native participation in the fishery and eliminated Native control. It was a "rhetoric of legitimation" that supported state domination, but also local resistance. Native peoples and their supporters used law, both Native and state law, to defend their fisheries. The history of the conflict over fish is the history of competing legal cultures, and the struggle on the Cowichan River and the Babine River over fish weirs reveals those cultures, constructed in opposition to each other. The study concludes by integrating the local conflicts over fish into a wider literature on law and colonialism, reflecting on the role of law in particular colonial settings. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Water quality studies conducted in the recent past in the Lower Fraser River Basin indicated that locally some high pollution levels exist. With further urbanization and industrialization of the Vancouver region an increase in waste loadings and a degradation of water quality can be expected if no strict pollution control is applied. Of particular concern are biologically undegradable substances such as heavy metals and poly-chlorinated hydrocarbons. They accumulate in the sediments of the river and the estuary and become concentrated in organisms of the food chain. Pollution is a gradually occurring process. Anticipation of potential problems is important for the decision maker responsible for water quality management. The Fraser River supports one of the largest salmon runs of the world and is abundant with other commercially and recreationally valuable fish. Salmon are very sensitive to pollution and could disappear from the Fraser river system as they already have from many other major rivers if pollution levels become too high. The Fraser River estuary has the function of a bottleneck. Adult salmon enter the river to migrate upstream to their spawning grounds, and juvenile salmon stay in the estuary for a while to acclimatize themselves to the saline environment. In this thesis a method is presented to simulate the effects of potential pollution on the size of a salmon stock. A model which uses data from various life stages of a particular sockeye salmon run in the Fraser system is developed. Uncertainties due to environmental fluctuations are accounted for. Using this model the effects of an increase in mortality rate in two stages of the sockeye salmon life cycle on adult return numbers are studied. The analysis showed that at a certain mortality rate chances are that the stock might not be able to recover. In light of a planned salmon enhancement program to increase salmon stocks in various Pacific rivers, the fact that decreasing water quality could counteract all enhancement efforts should be a warning signal to the decision makers. The development of a water quality index to predict future conditions is recommended and a possible procedure to relate water quality parameters to an increase in mortality rate is sketched out. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

An overview of stock-recruitment dynamics for major B.C. salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) stocks is presented. Stock-recruitment patterns range from linear relationships to "Ricker" type relationships to no relationship at all. However, stocks for which there are accurate escapement estimates generally show patterns expected from stock-recruitment theory. It is concluded that errors in stock definition, mixed catch allocation, and spawning counts bias optimum escapement estimates downward so that poorly monitored stocks may become severely overexploited without being noticed. Because of poor escapement counts and/or difficulties in separating mixed catches, optimum escapements for many B.C. salmon stocks, which account for about half of the total B.C. production, cannot be estimated. Most stocks for which optimum escapement can be estimated are now being severely depleted. Restoration of these stocks by increasing escapement to optimum levels would increase the total catch by at least 40% of the current yield. Further, experimental management by increasing escapement appears to be the best policy for most of the other stocks. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

The British Columbia fishery is in crisis. Environmental conditions and problems with the management of the fishing resource have led to a significant reduction in stocks and created serious economic problems in the industry. Women's work is central to the fishery yet it is often unpaid, underpaid and undervalued. Policies guiding the restructuring of the industry do not take into account the unique circumstances of women in the industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve the understanding about the ways fishery policy impacts the lives of women in the fishing communities of BC. The question posed: What is the experience of women in the BC Fisheries during a climate of crisis and change? A feminist approach is applied to this qualitative study. Unstructured interviews were conducted with a sample of nine women who have worked in the industry and are impacted by closures and cutbacks. Findings reveal a devastating magnitude of loss for these women and their families; a great mistrust of the motives of the Federal government and its policies; and a multitude of strategies used in their struggle for survival. The critical inequities in the fishing industry make this study particularly relevant to social work. Further research is warranted to develop adjustment, programs that address these inequalities and meet the needs of women in the coastal communities of BC. Limitations of thisstudy and suggestions for future research are discussed in the light of these findings. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and juvenile chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshazvytscha) co-occur during high tide in tidal channels of the Fraser River estuary. Given the high density of resident stickleback, there is the potential for strong interactions within and between the two species. Inter- and intra-specific interactions were tested by means of laboratory experiments, with support from field studies. Laboratory experiments placed stickleback and chinook in mixed and single species groups. The levels of aggressiveness were quantified, along with prey choice between surface (Drosophila), midwater (Artemia), and benthic (Tubifex) prey; microdistribution was also recorded. The experiments demonstrated that stickleback were highly aggressive towards chinook, and would drive them away from optimal feeding territories. Chinook consumed surface prey only when tested with stickleback, exploiting benthic and midwater prey when feeding alone. Stickleback demonstrated no significant difference in diet between single and mixed species trials, which is consistent with the supposition of strongly asymmetrical competition for food and space. Field data lend further support to this premise; a marked difference observed in diet suggests microhabitat partitioning between the two species, with stickleback feeding on benthos and chinook largely consuming surface prey. This thesis proposes that interactive segregation is an important process between sympatric stickleback and juvenile chinook in estuarine tidal channels and might have important implications for Fraser chinook stocks. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate