Tribal and fishing communities share strategies for adapting to change

Rapid change in Gulf of Alaska fisheries are disrupting established subsistence and commercial fishing practices that thousands of Alaskans depend on for food, livelihood and cultural well-being. Regional community organizations, with help from state and federal entities, have banded together to find ways of not just surviving, but thriving in the face of these challenges.

Alaska Sea Grant, in partnership with the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Tribal entities, and commercial fishing organizations, recently hosted a workshop focused on increasing collaborative resilience and adaptation strategies for commercial and subsistence fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska. The event, Our Way of Life, brought together representatives from the Kodiak Area Native Association, Native Village of Eyak, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, as well as from commercial fishing interests including the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, and local entities that bring commercial fishers together including the Alaska Marine Conservation Council and the Prince William Sound Science Center.

The workshop allowed commercial fishers and Tribes to share their observations of changes occurring in the marine environment and align interests to further resilience and adaptation efforts to benefit all users of the marine environment. Many of the conversations centered around conservation, food security, and economic development.

“While we were conducting workshops on building resilience in commercial fisheries, we recognized that there were so many intersections with what Tribes in these communities were also working on,” said Alaska Sea Grant’s Davin Holen, an event organizer. “This workshop was an opportunity to bring together participants who value fishing, whether as a commercial fisher or a subsistence fisher. It’s a way of life interwoven into the fabric of these communities.”

The workshop is part of the commercial fisheries resilience and adaptation project, which brings together a broad range of groups to foster community-led planning and local participation in research. The project focuses on Cordova, Kodiak and Sitka—three of the region’s fishing-dependent communities—which also serve as infrastructure, service and cultural hubs for smaller outlying communities.

“Robust, sustainable fisheries are vital to the people of coastal Alaska,” said Jake Cohen, an Alaska Sea Grant State Fellow and participant. “The people working on these issues from communities around Kodiak, Southcentral and Southeast realize that when they share knowledge, strategies and resources, they can achieve greater regional resilience.”

The project is led by the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center in collaboration with area fishing organizations, and is supported by Alaska Sea Grant, Alaska Ocean Observing System, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and others.

A workshop report will be completed in the fall and available on the project website.