Jack Sweet, a Quinault Indian Nation fisherman spots his quarry bobbing in the waves of the Pacific Ocean near Westport, Wash. It’s not a fish or a crab pot buoy, but a 5-foot long canary-yellow torpedo with wings that has been transmitting ocean data to computers during its six-week tour of the traditional fishing waters of Quinault Indian Nation.
Sweet has assisted the Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP) with deploying and retrieving the glider for the past two years. The QIN and CMOP partnership is just one example of the many ways tribes are engaging in national ocean research and policy development as part of protecting their way of life and the resources that sustain them.
Low oxygen events in 2006 and 2010 killed thousands of fish and crabs. Many sea birds perished in late 2009 after high levels of a phytoplankton stripped the natural waterproofing from the birds’ feathers. Unable to dive to feed or keep warm, nearly 10,000 scoters perished. Extreme numbers of another phytoplankton created some of the highest recorded levels of paralytic shellfish toxin in California mussels, closing harvest for most of coastal Washington.
For tribes, these occurrences underscore the need for additional research that will help explain what causes the events, how to predict when they occur and possibly mitigate for them.
As part of engaging in national decisions about research in ocean waters, coastal treaty tribes formed the Intergovernmental Policy Council to provide a regional forum and develop recommendations for management of coastal resources in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. At the national level, a tribal representative has served on the National Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (MPA FAC) since its inception in 2002.
Joe Schumacker, marine scientist for Quinault Indian Nation, is the current representative for tribes and is working to create a better description of cultural values in connection with proposed MPAs.
Mel Moon, Quileute Natural Resources director, was a member of the first MPA FAC group in 2002. He helped other participants understand treaty rights, traditional tribal knowledge of marine ecosystems and tribal scientific capacity. Makah tribal member Jim Woods, Sustainable Resource Management Division manager, continued that work until Schumacker’s appointment.
“Mel and Jim laid the groundwork for recognition of tribal rights in marine areas when others were considering MPAs,” said Schumacker. When discussion turned toward recognition of marine and Great Lakes areas that were culturally important to tribes and indigenous peoples, Schumacker saw that the National System of MPAs could reflect tribal authority to designate those areas. For some tribes, the process fits into the new arena of marine spatial planning.
Coastal marine spatial planning (CMSP) is like land use planning on the water. It is a way to designate areas in the marine environment that are best suited for uses like alternative energy development, cultural uses, conservation, and fishing. CMSP is a priority of the National Ocean Council (NOC), created by a 2010 Executive Order to carry out U.S. ocean policy.
The NOC will guide CMSP and ocean policy in nine regions that are still being defined, but tribes will have representatives at the national and regional levels.
The tribes and the state of Washington have already developed ocean research and planning goals – many of which mirror the U.S. ocean policy outlined in the Executive Order that created the NOC – for a coordinated and comprehensive management effort.
Tribal coastal community identity, culture and economy are inextricably linked with the ocean. Tribal knowledge and natural resource management expertise will be critical to developing ocean management policy for the future.
