The Ethnobiology of Traditional Fisheries: Bringing the past into the present

For millennia, coastal peoples around the world have relied on marine resources and ecosystems to sustain them. Many have developed complex systems of resource management and use that have encouraged social and ecological resilience. Today, changing ocean conditions, resulting from ocean warming, acidification, over-fishing, and pollution, coupled with changes in the social and economic contexts in which fisheries are conducted, threaten the resilience of traditional fisheries. At the same time, resource managers and social and natural scientists are increasingly aware of both the value of the knowledge encompassed within these fishery systems and the dearth of documentation about these systems. The papers in this session cover a range of topics associated with traditional fisheries, with a focus on situating traditional fisher knowledge and practice within current social and ecological contexts.