Study finds the effects of colonization that almost 90% of Burrard Inlet Food Ecosystems destroyed
Michelle George’s family has stories about the fish in the Burrard -inlaat that is so abundant that they prevented ships from sailing into the water.
‘You could walk over the back of the back [the fish] To get to the other side of the river, “said George.
“After dynamite fishing it was completely wiped out.”
A New research researchIn collaboration with the Satie Søl̓ilwøtaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and the University of BC, already found the consequences of colonization in 1750, including smallpox, overfishing and industrialization, almost 90 percent of food systems and sources in the burrard inlet in Metro Vancouver destroyed.
Ecosystems ‘Destroyed’
Researchers say that the study of their knowledge is the first attempt to quantify the effects of colonization on an ecosystem.
“After contact our houses were destroyed. Our life was destroyed, just like the ecology around us,” said George, co-author and cultural and technical specialist at the Tsleil-Waututh.
Co-author and the father of Michelle, Micheal George (spelled Micheal), a cultural adviser at Tsleil-Waututh, “You are going to hear stories about abundance, you know, a wide range of seafood, to almost nothing.”
A new study from the University of BC and the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation showed that smallfish, overfishing and rapid industrialization destroyed the traditional food of First Nations in the area. Study co-author Micheal George said his people went from hearing stories about abundance to ‘almost nothing’, while his daughter and another co-author, Michelle, said it shows the need for habitative recovery.
Micheal said that members of the community ate mussels on the beach of the inlet until about 1972.
“I’m talking about eating cockles on the beach, removing the water from the inlet and boiling the right to the beach – not to touch it at all.”
In the period between 1750 and 1980, the article was based on archeology, historical ecology, archive records and Tsleil-Waututh Science.
The research model estimated that in 1750-42 years before European contact-de Tsleil-Waututh, more than 2,200 tonnes of food harvested from the inlet, including mussels, herring, chum salmon, birds and crabs, according to a Tsleil-Waututh news item About the study.
But many of those species, including herring, sturgeon and halibut, were all “postponed” – some locally eradicated – from the burrard -inlet means.
The Howe Sound Marine Stewardship Initiative and the Squamish First Nation have worked together to study Pacific Herring, a species that almost dies out in the 1960s but has made a comeback in recent years. Camille Vernet from CBC explains why the fish plays an important role in balancing the ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean.
Fishing with dynamite
Herring was eradicated when settlers fishing used dynamite fish between 1885 and 1915.
The dynamite fish, in which settlers would throw dynamite of a yard into the water, was a preferred method for fishing fish, according to one 2023 Study on the collapse of nutritionists in Vancouver.
The UBC study also emphasized the specific cultural importance of Pacific Haring as a food source for many First Nations in BC and as an ecological keystone species.
“Haring and Salmon are two of the pillars of traditional søl̓ilwøtaɬ diets and the loss of herring and salmon mass in the [Burrard Inlet] Ecosystem represents a loss for søl̓ilwøtaɬ Lifeways and food sovereignty, “according to the study.
Researchers also considered the impact of smallpox and noted reports that two smallpox waves between 50 and 90 percent of the Tsleil-Waututh community were killed.
“The model exhibited a dramatic change in ecosystem status as soon as the CE -Pokken epidemic from 1782 claims, reducing the population of Søl̓ilwøtaɬ by 80 percent, from 10,000 to 2,000,” the report said.
After the epidemics, the report says that the population of settlers and the environmental effects increased.
The study also noted that because the dramatic loss took place in certain fish populations before the basic states of the inlet were determined, the Western scientific understanding of the biodiversity of the inlet is based on a reduced state.
“Where we are now is already at a level of destruction,” said Michelle George.
‘Huge loss’
Bruce Miller, an emeritus professor of anthropology at UBC, said he was not surprised by the findings of the study.
“It’s an important piece of work,” he said.
Miller said his work locally, as well as on the Gulf Islands and Puget Sound, also shows a “huge loss” of water supply and species.
“It is a message to the larger population that they are the people of this region, that they have been the stewards, that they are aware of what happened.”
He noted that Canada has a constitutional obligation to maintain indigenous rights and a way of life, and said that a recent lawsuit established that the cumulative impact of a series of industrial developments the treaty 8 Rights of the Blueberry River in the Northern BC violated
“[The Tsleil-Waututh Nation is] Saying: “We have the right to show you what the cumulative effects are,” said Miller.
“And, man, they showed what the cumulative effects are. That’s why this is important.”
Michelle George still has hope for the future of the inlet.
She said that the community there has transplanted eel grass, which she hopes will benefit the feeding.
Haring also returns, said Michelle and Orcas.
“I think the murderous whales are coming back is a huge plate, related to the herring, and then only the … whole food web.”
“Things must be done, recovery, improvement. … The inlet can be healthier.”
