Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-299).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [281]-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-281).

This thesis explores the role for social work in addressing government policies that threaten the sustainability of small coastal communities. The response of government and industry to the globalization of trade and resource degradation is at odds with the needs of people. Utilizing a case study methodology the development and implementation of the Pacific Salmon Revitalization Plan is explored. This department of fisheries plan to rationalize the fishery was highly contested on the grounds that it took jobs out of small coastal communities. It was accused of benefiting the large fishing corporations and the urban based fishing fleet, which had the capital to profit from the plan. Concentrated opposition from coastal communities, fishers, advocacy groups and academics was unsuccessful in changing the plan. The assumptions of modernism - expert knowledge, scientific rationality and orthodox economics - as well as distorted communications, were postulated to be behind this lack of success. A post modern analysis suggests that a successful challenge to the plan would have incorporated the local knowledge of fishers and coastal communities within a process of fair and equitable public discourse aimed at reaching intersubjectively mediated understanding. For social work this demonstrates the need to work conjointly with communities and affected groups to identify the modernist assumptions on which policy decisions are based and develop locally derived alternatives to these assumptions. And most importantly, that the focus of social change efforts be on demanding a process for discussion and decision-making that ensures that the concerns of effected individuals will be fairly addressed.

This thesis explores the role for social work in addressing government policies that threaten the sustainability of small coastal communities. The response of government and industry to the globalization of trade and resource degradation is at odds with the needs of people. Utilizing a case study methodology the development and implementation of the Pacific Salmon Revitalization Plan is explored. This department of fisheries plan to rationalize the fishery was highly contested on the grounds that it took jobs out of small coastal communities. It was accused of benefiting the large fishing corporations and the urban based fishing fleet, which had the capital to profit from the plan. Concentrated opposition from coastal communities, fishers, advocacy groups and academics was unsuccessful in changing the plan. The assumptions of modernism - expert knowledge, scientific rationality and orthodox economics - as well as distorted communications, were postulated to be behind this lack of success. A post modern analysis suggests that a successful challenge to the plan would have incorporated the local knowledge of fishers and coastal communities within a process of fair and equitable public discourse aimed at reaching intersubjectively mediated understanding. For social work this demonstrates the need to work conjointly with communities and affected groups to identify the modernist assumptions on which policy decisions are based and develop locally derived alternatives to these assumptions. And most importantly, that the focus of social change efforts be on demanding a process for discussion and decision-making that ensures that the concerns of effected individuals will be fairly addressed. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study explores the politics of regulating the British Columbia and Washington commercial salmon fisheries between 1937 and 1984. The principal focus of this comparative-historical study is upon one particularly striking exception to the tendency of regulators to tighten commercial salmon fishing restrictions over time - the persistence of liberal offshore trolling regulations. The dissertation argues that the anomalous treatment of the offshore troll fishery during this period may be ascribed to the competition between states for the right to harvest salmon - a common property resource. In making this claim, the study questions the adequacy of the interest-group driven explanations of policy which figure prominently in the literature on regulation. Two pillars of interest group theory, the tendencies to explain national policy only through reference to domestic politics and to reduce state behaviour to little more than the product of the demands of private sector interests, are challenged in this comparative case study. The challenge to the first tendency of interest group theory is sustained by examining the relations between national regulatory preferences and the foreign fishery policy goals of Canada and the United States. The pursuit of two goals - Asian exclusion and North American equity - in bilateral and multilateral negotiations demanded the adoption of particular regulatory profiles. Liberal offshore troll regulations may be explained according to the legitimacy and bargaining advantages they lent to Canadian and American efforts to incorporate these two goals into modifications to the traditional fishery regime. The study also suggests that, in a setting characterized by intergovernmental competition, regulatory policies may not always be equated with the preferences of interested private parties. In this setting the state's ability or willingness to respond to even the most influential private sector interests may be limited by the state's evaluation of its bargaining resources and requirements. State competition created a context where government attitudes towards offshore salmon fishing could be understood in terms of state preferences, preferences derived from officials' perceptions of the legitimacy of various national regulatory policies in the context of valued international institutions. While state competition is the centrepiece of the explanation of national fishery policy developed in this study its explanatory power is mediated by two intervening institutional variables - the capacities of states to formulate and implement policies and the structure of the international regime itself. The level of knowledge regarding the salmon resource played an instrumental role in the formulation of regime goals and of pertinent national policies. The extent to which state management in offshore waters was fragmented between different bureaus affected the ability of officials to adopt national policies which suited their international purposes. The redistribution of the American state's fishery management capacity in the 1970s was a catalyst for the severe restrictions visited upon Washington trailers at that time. A second institutional factor, the structure of the international fishery regime, also mediated the competition between states. The series of reciprocal fishing privileges agreements between Canada and the United States was particularly important in maintaining established offshore regulatory preferences during the 1970s when the clash between American and Canadian salmon fishery perspectives was intensifying. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

The Pacific Salmon Treaty was established by Canada and the United States to secure sustainability of salmon harvests within the Pacific Northwest. Renewed in June 1999, the treaty functions to legitimize and empower the Pacific Salmon Commission as the agent of fishery sustainability. The Pacific Salmon Commission serves as a bilateral recommendation-making body. Through its formal and informal, communications, the commission suggests action and defines regional salmon policy. Over the past decade pressures related to overharvest, changing oceanic conditions, and an increasing demand for production have challenged the commission and the fishery as never before. The Pacific Salmon Treaty was officially signed into existence in 1985. It was supposed to be re-ratified in 1992. This did not occur. From 1992 until 1999 numerous ratification processes were attempted, all but one failed. During this time tensions mounted and expressed frustrations nearly prompted overt violence. In August 1997 Canadian fishermen angered at the lack of a solution blockaded a U.S. passenger ferry thrusting the issue onto the world stage. In response to the crisis Canada and the U.S. empowered a joint commission to find resolution. While the resultant Strangway-Ruckelshaus Initiative proved to be a failure, its findings paved the way for eventual re-ratification. The Pacific Salmon Treaty exists because salmon within the Pacific Northwest represent different but simultaneous values within rooted world view orientations. The respective political cultures of Canada and the U.S. have sustained administrative regimes consistent with their dominant understanding of salmon and its values. Divergent cultural expectations and shared economic pressures have sustained conflict over the fishery and led to political and economic uncertainty. The Pacific Salmon Treaty is a work in progress. Understanding the treaty's context, historical development and function is vital for the sustainability of the fishery. The recent ratification of the Pacific Salmon Treaty represents an evolution in shared resource management. Based upon an "abundance-based management" regime the 1999 agreement provides the Pacific Salmon Commission with more discretionary capacity. However, the new pact may prove to be incomplete in form and function because of contradictory world view orientations. This research suggests that an emphasis on struggle management instead of conflict avoidance coupled with an enhanced bilateral commitment to the sustainability of the fishery may prove most helpful for the long-term outlook of the salmon. It also suggests that it is simply too early to tell whether this most recent attempt can or will "save the salmon." / Graduation date: 2001

An approach to understanding and managing anadromous salmon, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) based on life history and evolutionary adaptive capacities of species and stocks is presented. Species, stocks, and local populations are viewed as systems that are continuously adapting to changing environmental conditions. They have the potential capacity to evolve in different ways in different environments through both life history and evolutionary adaptation. Habitat organization forms a template for genus, species, stock, and local population life history organization. Harvesting, habitat alteration resulting from land use practices and other human activities can alter the organization and adaptive capacities of species and stocks, and thus their long term persistence. The adaptive capacity of Oncorhynchus relative to its habitat and management environment is examined at the species, stock, and local population levels. Life history characteristics of representative stocks and local populations are analyzed using Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DECORANA). Fresh water migration distance and latitude are used to "explain" ordination patterns of Oncorhynchus species in the North Pacific Basin. Fresh water migration difficulty and mean annual runoff are used to interpret life history patterns of Columbia Basin chinook salmon stocks. Upstream migration difficulty and fall water temperatures are used to explain the ordination patterns of local populations of Willamette spring chinook salmon. Fishery management practices are examined in terms of their impacts on the organization and adaptive capacity of species, stocks, and local populations of Oncorhynchus. Management generalizations and guidelines derived from the life history theory are applied to management of Willamette spring chinook salmon. Maintaining habitat changes in the Willamette Basin within the historic range of fluctuations will tend to maximize co-organization of local populations. Management activities should provide relatively constant habitat and fishery conditions for natural selection processes to "organize" life history traits over a period of at least a few generations. Fisheries should selectively harvest local populations that show a high degree of realization of their adaptive capacity. By focusing instead on maximizing the co-organization of stocks, their habitat and fishery environments, and protecting the adaptive capacities of stocks, we will go a long way toward providing long-term sustainability for social communities dependent on fisheries. / Graduation date: 1994

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.

Canadian fisheries are in crisis. On both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, stories abound of fisheries closures or failures and coastal communities in difficulty. A new approach to fisheries policy is required, one which recognises the intrinsic value of all participants in the fisheries ecosystem and is capable of providing guidance on how to make policy decisions. The principles of environmental ethics provide a framework for developing justice-based fisheries policies. The environmental ethics literature is first explored, with special attention to fisheries issues. From this review, a justice-based framework is identified, in which five types of justice are viewed as pertinent to fisheries concerns. This framework is then translated into an assessment tool, based upon the Rapfish method for rapid appraisal of fisheries and using a set of justice-based ethical criteria. These criteria are evaluated and, through a paired comparison survey, further explored. An assessment of a range of Canadian marine fisheries is conducted using these ethical criteria. Subsequently, a modified Rapfish assessment, using the original criteria supplemented with additional customised criteria, is conducted for Aboriginal fisheries for Pacific salmon in British Columbia. Additionally, a study is conducted which explores preferences regarding the abundance and diversity of fisheries ecosystems. Finally, the commercial fishery for Pacific salmon in British Columbia is presented as a case study. The Rapfish assessment results are presented, and considerations as to how to operationalise just policies for this fishery are suggested. Recommendations include: balancing the composition of the commercial fleet, based upon ecological impacts of the various gear types; encouragement of local stewardship and community involvement; and inclusion of various forms of knowledge in fisheries management and decision-making.