an investigation into the local and traditional knowledge of the saugeen ojibway nation regarding the status of ciscoes (coregonus spp.) in lake huron
abstract
the ciscoes (coregonus spp.) of lake huron are a poorly understood group of fish that have
experienced declines in population numbers and a collapse of their ecological communities.
ciscoes are culturally and socio-economically important to the people of the saugeen ojibway
nation (son), who have harvested them for food and commerce for generations. the decline in
cisco populations has had significant impacts on the son’s economy and traditional food
availability, a key pillar of indigenous food security. a community-based investigation son fish
harvesters’ indigenous ecological knowledge (iek) was conducted to address concerns about the
cisco fishery and to determine if this knowledge can inform fisheries governance and socialecological relationships with ciscoes in lake huron. sixteen semi-structured mapping interviews
were held with past and current son fish harvesters. their iek represented unique contributions
that account for social and ecological perspectives. two groups of ciscoes were identified, lake
herring (coregonus artedi) and chub (coregonus spp.). the former is an important traditional
food fish while the latter was a significant component of the son fishery from the 1990s until
the 2000s. a practical application of this iek was successful cisco-specific sampling that was
conducted in 2019. the results reveal that iek has the potential to inform governance by
identifying meta-level governance elements and the application of a two-eyed seeing approach.
the iek of the son and their connection to these fish has been altered by numerous
anthropogenic and ecological factors, but their legacy lives on.