Understanding Impacts of Environmental Change on Arctic Char: Linking Contemporary Scientific and Inuvialuit Traditional Knowledge for Community Monitoring

Fish are an essential part of the diet and subsistence economy of the Inuvialuit in the western Canadian Arctic. Although the wage-earning economy is now predominant, subsistence fishing remains a primary source of nutritious food. The importance of fish, specifically Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus), and the effects of a changing environment on this subsistence resource necessitates effective long-term community-based monitoring (CBM). CBM gathers systematic information in order to detect changes in, and make management decisions about, the resource.

Local expert fishers were directly involved in the research design, determination of study locations, contributing their expert knowledge, determination of environmental and ecological parameters for scientific study, as well as results analyses and interpretation.

This paper overviews the outcomes of a seven-year community-collaborative mixed methods research project integrating local expert knowledge (including Traditional Knowledge) with ecological and environmental knowledge.  Through this approach, we learned: 1) landlocked lake parameters that affect Arctic Char growth and health; 2) local environmental parameters that affect Arctic Char growth; 3) indicators that pertain to the local area for use in Arctic Char CBM; 4) community needs to carry out effective CBM; and, 5) how this information leads to more informed management of the Arctic Char resource.