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Moderator: Bob Purdy

Co-producing Solutions to the Impacts of Climate Change on Canada’s Undersea Forests

Presenter: Danielle Denley

Climate change is threatening food security for coastal communities world-wide. On the central coast of BC, First Nations communities rely heavily on kelp forests for commercial, food, social and ceremonial purposes. This talk highlights how co-production of research can facilitate relevant solutions that are directly available for local decision-makers to integrate into regional management plans, first by summarizing previous results revealing strong temperature effects on kelp recovery post-harvest on the Central Coast, and second by introducing recent research co-produced with the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance to determine whether adaptive management of traditional community-based kelp harvest can minimize the negative impact of temperature-induced bryozoan outbreaks on kelp.

Both examples use co-developed methodologies based on traditional kelp harvest and related fisheries, increasing the likelihood that First Nations communities will continue to adaptively manage kelp forests to increase the resilience of both kelp forest ecosystems and coastal communities to climate change.

SmartICE: Supporting Sustainable Winter Fisheries for Nunavut Communities under Changing Climate

Presenters: Trevor Bell

Across Nunavut, community-based fisheries are improving food security, providing employment and increasing the socio-economic well-being of Nunavummiut. The Government of Nunavut has a long-term goal to establish a self-supporting, inshore fishery, and to this end, several industry groups have invested in the development of a winter fishing industry in Baffin Island communities.

Climate change and its impacts on sea-ice conditions, however, represent increasing risk to fisher safety, industry investment in the winter fishery and the realization of the Government of Nunavut’s economic development goals. Our partnership between the hamlets of Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq, SmartICE (smartice.org) and Nunavut Fisheries Association is supporting a climate-adapted fishery by providing important information on landfast sea-ice thickness and travel hazards in near real-time. We are working closely with fishers to identify and address their specific ice information needs and develop technology solutions to complement their Inuit knowledge.