First Nations wonder if Canada’s decision on eels is best for the future of the species

Canada announced this on Tuesday American eel will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act (SARA) Some First Nations people who have cultural and spiritual connections to the species are questioning the decision.

“It’s not looking promising right now because we’re not seeing anything being done to help them,” said Charles Doucette, fisheries director for Potlotek First Nation on Cape Breton Island.

Doucette has memories of his father coming home to hang fish to dry in the basement and preparing them to give to family and friends.

“It was a long time ago,” Doucette said.

“You’ve heard all the stories of people using eels for medicine and treats, and that’s all gone.”

Doucet used to fish with his father in the Bras d’Or lakes and areas of southern Cape Breton, but he said those lakes are now nearly empty of eels, which is why he questions the decision not to list the American eel under the Endangered Species Act.

The American eel was assessed as “threatened” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 2012, but for 13 years the federal government could not decide whether to list it as a threatened species.

A list under SARA Automatic legal protections against killing, capturing or harming the species would be triggered.

Instead the federal government says it will continue to manage eel populations under the Fisheries Act, leaving the decision to commercial elver (juvenile eel) fishermen in Atlantic Canada. to applaud,

In Nova Scotia, where the debate over the health of eel populations often pits commercial eel harvesters, environmentalists, treaty fishermen and those with Mi’kmaw knowledge against each other, some say population declines are already visible.

Doucette said people like him and his aunt and uncle – now in their 80s – struggle to find eels to eat in the winter.

He said baked eel with its rich, smooth meat is more than a meal, it is its hallmark.

“It’s just part of their sense of being Mi’kmaw,” he said.

“We are connected to the fish.”

data The Atlantic Canada Conservation Center says the eel population in Nova Scotia is vulnerable, in Prince Edward Island, at risk, and in New Brunswick, apparently secure.

Eel decline felt in Kitigan Zibi

In Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, about 150 kilometers north of Ottawa, fish numbers in the community’s traditional waterway, the Ottawa River, have declined over the past few decades.

Christy Leora Gainsworth from Kitigan Zibi She says her connection to eels is in her DNA, through her Onondaga father’s eel clan and her mother’s Anishinaabe culture, where there is a historical reliance on eels as medicine, seasonal indicators, and as a food source.

“I remember hearing stories from elders that you could actually hear the eels moving in the water at night because there were so many fish in there,” he said.

“And that was within living memory.”

He said eels in his area, which once made up more than half the biomass of the Ottawa River, have declined by 99 per cent due to dams and habitat loss.

“All these compounding factors have kind of erased it from our memory,” Gainsworth said.

Gansworth doubts whether listing the eel under SARA would be the solution, as there are limits that would lead to community fishing for ceremonial or cultural purposes.

connecting nations

Concern for eels has become a connector connecting Kitigan Zibi and Mi’kmaq, Gansworth said.

The informal name of this network, eel’s backIts roots trace back to the work of the late Kitigan Zibi Elder William Commanda in the 90s, who saw the eel as a vital species whose health reflected the well-being of the Earth and indigenous nations.

Inspired by Commanda’s efforts, L. Jane McMillan, Helped organize Eels Back with members of Commanda’s advocacy efforts.

The group, made up of countries from across North America, meets to discuss eels and consider ways to protect the species while incorporating indigenous knowledge and self-governance.

McMillan’s appreciation of eels began through his late partner, Donald Marshall Jr., whose fishing case had the Supreme Court affirm Mi’kmaw treaty rights.

“I’m surprised. I’m concerned,” he said of the federal decision.

“I think there is a claim to be having meaningful consultation, but with whom and in what context the question is outstanding.”

McMillan is concerned about what DFO will do to address habitat change, dams, turbines, and fisheries management, particularly the eel fishery, which he said is extremely destructive to the eel’s life cycle.

John Couture, senior fisheries adviser at marine conservation group Oceans North, said The non-listing was not surprising given the economic pressures surrounding the high-value elver fishery.

Listing under SARA would stop all crops – commercial, formal, recreational and treaty-based.

Couture believes that a compromise would not have listed the species under SARA, but instead would have listed the species under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II. This will mean measures that strengthen traceability and curb illicit trade.

Canada voted against CITES at the World Wildlife Conference in late November.

In a statement to CBC Indigenous, DFO said the decision not to list the eel under SARA considered scientific, socio-economic data and consultation. Indigenous groups, provinces, partners, stakeholders and the Canadian public.

The statement said managing eels under the Fisheries Act would be most effective for conserving the species while preserving economic benefits for all Canadians.

said this The American eel does not meet the Appendix II criteria set by CITES, which requires a 70 percent population decline to be listed. National Science Review of 2024 He said fish abundance across Canada has remained “relatively stable” for two decades.

international scope

Marine biologist Shelley Denny, a senior advisor at the Umamaki Institute of Natural Resources, has studied eels throughout her career, with a particular interest in the eel’s Mi’kmaw cultural connections and its roles in food, medicine, spirituality, and economy.

Denny, who is Mi’kmaw from Potlotec, is wary of the SARA listing and the potential implications of the Mi’kmaw connection with eels.

“This would put virtually everything into the hands of the government,” Denny said.

Instead Denny believes attention should turn to industries contributing to habitat loss, particularly in Ontario and Quebec where hydropower is Dam turbines kill large numbers of eels.

She also advocates international coordination in the management of the species, as it crosses international waters to spawn in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda.

“It’s not just one country or one group of people that can solve this problem,” Denny said.

“Let’s think about how we can all contribute to eel conservation and sustainable fishing practices.”

DFO said management measures for the 2026 elver season, including the total allowable catch, will be announced next year.