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by Kelly Poirier
Uu-a-thluk Outreach
Mar. 15, 2007

This agreement between Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations , Environment Canada, DFO and the CFIA, has made it possible for KCFN clam diggers to harvest in their territory for the first time since closure of Area 26 took place in 2004 due to water quality issues.

Following a focused effort to collect data through water sampling, and identify known sources of pollutants in the Kyuquot region, the First Nations, along with Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), used the bacterial source tracking data collected by Katie Beach through her master’s work with Simon Fraser University (SFU) to develop a conditional management plan.

A conditional management plan is a type of agreement that allows shellfish areas to open while water quality data is collected. It also allows for enhanced resource productivity and improved shellfish management while reflecting the conditions and cycles responsible for an increased fecal coliform concentration.

This agreement between Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations (KFCN), Environment Canada, DFO and the CFIA, has made it possible for KCFN clam diggers to harvest in their territory for the first time since closure of Area 26 took place in 2004 due to water quality issues. The closure was implemented after findings of high fecal coliform bacteria (associated with mammal scat) in the marine water during Environment Canada’s bi-annual sampling.
However, the local community felt that the year-round closure was not reflective of the general water quality in the area, especially given the remoteness of Kyuquot Sound and the lack of large population centres nearby.

Fecal coliform is a bacteria from the fecal material of warm blooded animals that can contain pathogens and disease, including serious viruses like typhoid. Fecal coliform bacteria may occur in water surrounding areas where domestic sewage has overflowed or from nonpoint sources of human and animal waste.

As a part of her master’s work through SFU with DR. Evelyn Pinkerton, Beach worked with the KFCN to implement a conditional management plan after conducting some initial microbialbacterial source tracking research (i.e. identifying the specials from where the fecal matter originated). Beach worked with Kyuquot as a part of her graduate program research through SFU to develop the aquatic environment. The research project d process also demonstrates a collaborative and co-operative arrangement between the First Nations and three federal agencies.

Based on traditional ecological knowledge, Nuu-chah-nulth believe that shellfish harvest should happen in the winter months, but that is not when Environment Canada was doing their sample testing. Testing took place twice per year during fall and spring, when there was the heaviest rain after drier periods and this provided highest potential for water run-off to bring animal waste into the water. Most Nuu-chah-nulth in the area would know better than to eat shellfish after a major rainfall.

In this case, Environment Canada lacked money to do additional water sampling in the winter, and explore the community’s concerns. However, the KCFN fisheries department was willing to step-up to provide the funding and the human resources to conduct additional testing to see if some clam harvesting was possible.
A collaboration between the KFCN, Simon Fraser University, and Environment Canada was developed that enabled training and sampling. A protocol was developed with Environment Canada to work jointly with the Kyuquot fisheries crew. After testing every two weeks, the water was found to be extremely clean in the winter with spikes of fecal coliform bacteria counts in the spring and fall.

The conditional management plan was then developed in partnership with the Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations, the CFIA, DFO, and Environment Canada, and the provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. The plan lays out what beaches are open for fishermen to harvest according to regulate water quality and clam mean sampling results. The Kyuquot fisheries crew, consisting of Tony Hanson and Danny Short, went out seven times to take the samples from the open beaches. Currently, community members can harvest from three beaches in the area. It is hoped that other beaches will be opened by this coming April.

The plan has the added benefit of allowing the community to control the selection of the beaches that are healthy and to take low stocks into consideration to protect beaches with low clam abundance.

“The real benefit is that it allows the community increased control in the management of the resource.” Said Kevin Head, KCFN ban manager. There was a lot of effort on the part of the KCFN to bring the conditional management plan to fruition. Kyuquot/Checleseht, along with the NTC and Environment Canada, contributed to the initial microbialbacterial source tracking research conducted by Beach. Kyuquot/Checleseht is also funding the sample gathering at a cost of up to $2,000 for each sample run, and sending them out for analysis.

“That money turns into about $10,000 in income per dig for community members,” said Head. “That is a good investment.”

With very few other fishing opportunities in the area, the conditional management plan is also benefiting the community in many other ways. Sales of clams in the winter months are important to Kyuquot/Checleseht members with limited opportunities to make money in the winter. Clam harvesting provides opportunities where there are few today.

“It is critical income for members to get through the winter,” said Head. “Other than one commercial salmon fisherman, band members are shut out of every other fishery.” The clam fishery doesn’t require a big boat or a lot of equipment to participate. “A lot of people have no boats or cars to go to another area to dig,” said Tony Hanson, Kyuquot/Checleseht fisheries department manager. “They are happy to get out there.”

Through the conditional management plan, diggers are getting full price for their harvest, where typically one would lose some percentage per pound it digs take place under depuration.

“There is overhead for the sampling work,” said Head, “but it is less than what it would cost to lease a beach from the province, or losing a percentage from a depuration dig.”

With 60 licenses within the community, the last opening had 34 participants, and the previous openings had 24 and 29 participants respectively. Kyuquot/Checleseht harvesters have taken a total of 15,000 pounds of clams since the beginning of January.

“Compliance with the plan is good,” said Hanson. “Mostly it gets people out in their own area, and they don’t have to travel to another place to dig.”

The future of the fishery is dependant on testing new beaches to see which ones will be of most benefit and then rotating the harvest accordingly.

“We are hoping to get other areas open,” said Hanson. “One more tide in Amai Inlet and we won’t be able to dig. There are two other beaches to hopefully open if the samples are clean.”

The process of rotating beaches helps to encourage healthy beaches, when they are given a chance to rejuvenate.
The conditional management plan is working in Kyuquot Sound, but it isn’t perfect.

They do feel limited to the approved areas of harvest. There were also challenges with the recent wave of bad storms this year which prevented samples from getting to the lab.

Furthermore, during the big storm on Dec. 21, 2006, local winds reached 80 knots and diggers were stranded on a beach.

“It is a new process and a learning curve for our fisheries department,” said Head. “We need to work on who to communicate with and build trust with in Environment Canada, CFIA, and DFO. It is not insurmountable, but we are still working the bugs out of the system.”

The conditional management plan model is a good example for all West Coast communities as Nuu-chah-nulth become increasingly aware of water quality closures affecting their communities.
“They might look at how the Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations is handling this so far,” said Heat, “and see if it looks like something that will work for them.”

Communities can control human elements like septic and effluent through policy and by-laws, “but when it is an issue of hinterland drainage (i.e., coming from wild animals in the watershed), you can’t control it,” said Beach. “You can work around the natural cycles of animals, such as hibernation or migration cycles.”
Kyuquot/Checleseht is working to prove that no challenge is insurmountable and a community can take the responsibility in managing their own resources and finding solutions.

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