Articles
On the spot news! · 24th October 2010
Klahoose CCP
Late September, 2010, Klahoose First Nation embarked on their first geoduck seeding project on their aquaculture lease near Squirrel Cove. Geoducks are bivalve shellfish that live under the ocean floor and are of great value as an aquaculture product.
Chief Ken Brown and the Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation has been working on a management plan to implement a strategy for harvesting and seeding on Klahoose leases.
They have selected geoducks as a species for harvesting for the high value they create on the global market.
Chief Brown discusses the challenges to overcome to be the first Aboriginal Nation to successfully seed their lease:
“We spent four years opposing, what was in our opinion a flawed fishery policy, that had a heavy bias supporting the UHA (underwater harvesters association). Throughout the four year battle there was numerous times where we felt like giving up.
It became very clear early on in our discussions with DFO that UHA had a tremendous amount of influence over some of the people within the DFO organization and we had a hard time differentiating between the two groups.
Fortunately, there are some folks within DFO that felt uncomfortable with how our Nation was being marginalized and conveniently discarded as a result of an interim draft policy that made no sense and only served to perpetuate the UHA monopoly. Our band (Klahoose) was eventually successful at developing a semi functional working relationship with DFO and look to improve upon it with collaborative research on geoduck aquaculture as well as participating in meetings as a member of the advisory group that will hopefully help shift policy change.
This industry has immense potential and being the first band in the region to successfully seed geoduck tenure is a glowing accomplishment but hopefully only the start of new things to come.
We plan on continuing our research program with UBC , developing grow out technologies and new feedstock recipes as well as applying for new areas which will create more favourable circumstances for us to generate investment.”
Klahoose Fisheries has been actively coordinating efforts with the seeding and monitoring the progress of the initial seeding. Fisheries Officer, Ken Hanuse has also been standing by for safety measures.
Chief Ken Brown and the Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation has been working on a management plan to implement a strategy for harvesting and seeding on Klahoose leases.
They have selected geoducks as a species for harvesting for the high value they create on the global market.
Chief Brown discusses the challenges to overcome to be the first Aboriginal Nation to successfully seed their lease:
“We spent four years opposing, what was in our opinion a flawed fishery policy, that had a heavy bias supporting the UHA (underwater harvesters association). Throughout the four year battle there was numerous times where we felt like giving up.
It became very clear early on in our discussions with DFO that UHA had a tremendous amount of influence over some of the people within the DFO organization and we had a hard time differentiating between the two groups.
Fortunately, there are some folks within DFO that felt uncomfortable with how our Nation was being marginalized and conveniently discarded as a result of an interim draft policy that made no sense and only served to perpetuate the UHA monopoly. Our band (Klahoose) was eventually successful at developing a semi functional working relationship with DFO and look to improve upon it with collaborative research on geoduck aquaculture as well as participating in meetings as a member of the advisory group that will hopefully help shift policy change.
This industry has immense potential and being the first band in the region to successfully seed geoduck tenure is a glowing accomplishment but hopefully only the start of new things to come.
We plan on continuing our research program with UBC , developing grow out technologies and new feedstock recipes as well as applying for new areas which will create more favourable circumstances for us to generate investment.”
Klahoose Fisheries has been actively coordinating efforts with the seeding and monitoring the progress of the initial seeding. Fisheries Officer, Ken Hanuse has also been standing by for safety measures.
