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>Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 13:48:06 -0800
>To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
>From: Native Americas Journal <bfw2@cornell.edu>
>Subject: Global Warming and Aquatic Resource Depletion
>
>The following article is provided from Native Americas' special-issue
>on "Global Warming, Climate Change and Native Lands." Published by
>the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University's American Indian Program,
>Native Americas Journal keeps you informed of issues and events that
>impact indigenous communities throughout the hemisphere. You can find
>more information on this topic, as well as how to subscribe to Native
>Americas, on our website at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Stress on Stress: Global Warming and Aquatic Resource Depletion
>By Robert Gough/Native Americas Journal
>© Copyright 2000
>
>A comprehensive assessment of the potential effects of climate change
>has been undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
>Control, jointly established in 1988 by the World Meteorological
>Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. Through a
>series of reports and working papers, the climate control panel has
>sought to establish a common international base of information to
>assess the potential human and natural vulnerabilities, costs and
>benefits of anticipated climate change. The Natural Resource Defense
>Council (NRDC) has presented a concise analysis of the potential
>impact of climate change on fishery resources for the U.S.
>Environmental Protection Agency. That analysis addresses the issue of
>global warming and provides the background source for the
>environmental impact of climate change on fisheries addressed here.
>
>Native Fisheries
>Native peoples have expertly adapted both their cultures and
>technologies over thousands of years to the sustained use of fishery
>resources of the Western Hemisphere. Tribes in every region of the
>country continue to rely in some degree upon local fishery resources
>as part of their local economies. North American fisheries include
>both the marine (Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf and Arctic) and the
>freshwater (Great Lakes, rivers and inland lakes) resources in and
>around Turtle Island.
>
>In recent years numerous tribes, particularly in the Northwest Coast
>and Great Lakes, have engaged in litigation to assert their
>treaty-protected hunting, fishing and gathering rights to continue
>their historic subsistence and commercial patterns. Global warming
>has been identified as potentially one of the most important factors
>affecting the world's fisheries, with direct and indirect
>implications for Native peoples and their homeland economies.
>
>Global climate change researchers have focused largely upon the
>important ocean fisheries, which contribute significantly to human
>food supply. Global (primarily marine) fisheries provide the world
>with about 20 percent of our animal protein. Worldwide fisheries are
>pressed to their natural limits and international fishing fleets are
>at over-capacity. Fishing fleets of various nations exceed their own
>boundaries and encroach on the territorial waters of other countries.
>Native concerns with the ocean fisheries involve those Native peoples
>living on the various islands and coastal territories of the Pacific
>and Caribbean. In addition, many of the Pacific Northwest and Alaskan
>peoples live in the spawning areas for salmon stock which mature and
>are then fished in the Pacific.
>
>Native Investment in Fishing Economies
>Tribes throughout the United States have invested substantial
>resources in the development of infrastructure associated with
>regional fisheries. Indirectly, tribes have capitalized segments of
>the tourism industry (resorts, restaurants, lodging, camping, boat
>landings, marinas, guiding operations, bait shops, sale of licenses
>and permits, etc.) to attract and accommodate seasonal visitors to
>the environs of Indian reservations.
>
>Many Native peoples living on the Pacific Coast, Caribbean Islands,
>throughout the Great Lakes and woodland regions, have long cultural
>histories based upon the utilization of marine, river and lake
>resources for year-round subsistence.
>
>Fishery resources have become increasingly important beyond the
>traditional subsistence uses to become an integral part of Native
>local cash economies. Fishing has been developed and regulated for
>both commercial and subsistence purposes.
>
>IPCC Findings
>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control has found that global
>warming will likely cause collapses of some fisheries and expansion
>of others. This impact will involve territorial shifts of fishery
>stock and may bring about changes in presence and available species.
>The level of impact will vary widely, depending upon the nature and
>complexity of each ecosystem, including the attributes and
>adaptability of each species, as well as upon the nature of the human
>communities dependent upon them. If climate change occurs on the
>scale indicated by the climate change models, significant effects can
>be expected on the distribution and productivity of valuable regional
>fisheries and the local industries associated with them.
>
>Marine Fisheries: Nearly all of the marine fisheries utilized by
>Native peoples depend upon spawning grounds located in the Pacific
>Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, Great Lakes, Eastern
>Seaboard and Gulf Coast. These areas contribute both nutrients and
>pollutants to marine fisheries.
>
>Marine fisheries serve important tribal needs from direct subsistence
>use and through commercial and tourist industries, particularly in
>the Pacific Northwest.
>
>A significant concern to tribal communities is the potential
>synergistic effect between climate change and over-fishing. Climate
>changes can exacerbate the effects of over-fishing at a time of
>inherent instability in world fisheries. In addition, over-fishing
>creates an increased imbalance in the age composition of a stock, and
>may reduce the resiliency of the population. Further, changes in
>ocean currents may result in changes in fish population location and
>abundance and the loss of certain fish populations.
>
>Warming temperatures and a rising sea level will affect coastal
>wetlands and other valuable fisheries habitat, because some 70
>percent of global fish resources depend on near-shore or estuarine
>habitats at some point in their life cycle. Fish production will thus
>suffer when such nursery habitats are lost. A rising sea would
>increase pollution by lifting the water table in low-lying areas near
>the coast, releasing contaminants from dumpsites and viruses and
>bacteria from septic systems into coastal waters and waterways. Such
>contaminants could enter estuarine and inshore food chains and pose
>health hazards. Risk of cholera (associated with the proliferation of
>marine algal blooms) could rise, with human health implications for
>those consuming raw clams, mussels and oysters. For citizens'
>protection, governments may be forced to close affected areas to fish
>and shellfish harvesting. In addition to rising temperatures and sea
>levels, changes in ocean circulation would create impacts yet
>unknown. It is likely that shifting wind patterns and storm events
>could dramatically alter local currents and upwellings, affecting
>total fish production and species dominance.
>
>Freshwater Fisheries: There are vast freshwater fisheries and
>spawning lake and river habitats located in the Pacific Northwest,
>Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard and Gulf
>Coast, along with extensive prairie pothole fishing done throughout
>the Great Plains.
>
>Like marine fisheries, freshwater fisheries are relied on for
>subsistence purposes and allow for commercial and tourist industries.
>These resources also provide critical habitat for local and migratory
>bird populations, which are also relied upon for subsistence and
>recreational commerce.
>
>The impact of climate change on inland freshwater fisheries is of
>significant concern to tribal communities given the potential for
>loss. Small rivers and lakes will be most sensitive to climate
>changes, especially in regions with greater temperature and
>precipitation changes such as the South, West, Great Plains, and
>Great Lakes. Population decline or local extinction may befall native
>species unable to move or adapt to such temperature changes.
>Surviving species may succumb to predatory pressure and competition
>from more exotic species better adapted to the new conditions.
>Changing rain and snowfall patterns, along with particularly early
>springtime and flash-flood events, are likely to have significant
>effects on river fisheries, where production may be limited by the
>loss of spawning grounds and contamination from urban, industrial or
>agricultural lands. The other extreme of dry summer months is likely
>to bring about low oxygen levels at low-river flows.
>
>The NRDC have identified several positive and negative factors
>associated with greater warming and related precipitation at higher
>altitudes. On the positive side, there are likely to be faster fish
>growth and maturation rates, lower winter mortality rates and
>expanded habitats. On the negative side, there is likely to be an
>increase in summer anoxia, increased demands for food because of
>higher metabolism and a reduced habitat for cold-water species.
>
>The NRDC has also projected sea-level associated changes. According
>to the NRDC, a potential rise in sea level of 1.5 feet over the next
>century will have extreme repercussions to island communities and
>wetlands. It is estimated that at this level, island communities will
>suffer inundation by salt water and some 2.5 million acres of
>wetlands could be lost in the lower 48 states alone. While scientists
>project that ocean and coastal fish production might first rise (as
>the result of marsh decomposition and increased availability of
>nutrients), by 2050 to 2100, however, the overall impact on fisheries
>probably will be negative. A lesser, but still significant, 14-inch
>rise in sea levels is likely to inundate 40 percent of the vast
>mudflats in Puget Sound. This would wipe out a significant habitat
>for shellfish and waterfowl that Northwest Coast tribes count on.
>
>In addition to rising sea levels, substantial warming of coastal
>waters will affect farming of marine species in shallow water areas
>before deep oceanic species. In these cases, soft-shelled clams are
>likely to disappear from the bay and tidal areas. The warmer water
>conditions, especially in spawning areas, would also favor exotic
>over native species of significant commercial value.
>
>Native fisheries are likely to face an array of extremes in the event
>of climate change. The effects and stresses will vary from region to
>region, but in most cases will spell altered, reduced, lost or
>unhealthy habitats, diminished fish species and in some cases, a
>complete collapse of fisheries. Native peoples who have come to rely
>upon fisheries must begin to address the multitude of effects that
>climate change could bring in order to avoid the devastating
>environmental and economic blows that could accompany such changes.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Robert Gough is the attorney for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Utility
>Commission, Secretary of the Intertribal Council on
>Utility Policy (COUP), and a University of Colorado Law School
>Fellow. He served as co-chair of the Native Peoples/
>Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>"Nowhere else will you be able to find such powerful-knowledge filled writing."
>-Wilma Mankiller, Editorial Board Member of Native Americas Journal
>
>Native Americas Journal
>Akwe:kon Press
>American Indian Program
>Cornell University
>450 Caldwell Hall
>Ithaca, NY 14853-2602
>
>Tel.   (607) 255-4308
>Subs.  (800) 9-NATIVE
>Fax.   (607) 255-0185
>Email. nativeamericas@cornell.edu
>Internet       http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu

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