Dr. Anne Salomon to explore the decline of coastal shellfish and rebound in kelp forests
By Kristina Charania
Photos by Mike Baird
Along some shorelines and oceans bordering the Alaskan and British Columbian coasts, shellfish numbers are quickly dwindling as sea otters, once listed as endangered, continue to recover and consume them. Though these sea otters are a natural part of temperate coastal ecosystems, their population recovery and growth leaves few shellfish behind for the First Nations people that rely on these invertebrates as a source of food and livelihood.
Marine ecologist Dr. Anne Salomon has recently been awarded a $150,000 Pew Fellowship for a collaborative investigation on the issue. Salomon has been involved in marine conservation issues for over 12 years and continues to teach courses in applied ecology at Simon Fraser University, direct the university’s Coastal Marine Ecology and Conservation Lab, and function as a primary investigator with SFU’s Hakai Network for Coastal People, Ecosystems and Management.
“I was shaking in my boots when I was nominated for this award because I didn’t think there was any way I’d receive it. In my field, it’s a huge honour to receive a Pew Fellowship, and as a young graduate student, it’s something that I hoped I would earn one day,” said Salomon. “I feel very humbled about this whole experience.”
Each year, the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation selects five outstanding scientists from around the world who are tackling the challenges confronting the world’s oceans through interdisciplinary research projects. With her Pew Fellowship, Salomon will examine sea otter recovery and bring academics, First Nations Elders, and resource managers together to analyze the past and present plights of local marine ecosystems, blend western science and traditional knowledge, and create viable solutions for aquatic environments in the future
“I think the reason I was selected for this award is because of the strong and productive partnerships I’ve had with coastal First Nations people in Alaska,” said Salomon.
“Our team is dedicated to really listening and working with coastal communities to provide solutions for issues that they feel are important to their coastal ecosystems, their societies, and to their people.”
The struggles created by shellfish declines are multi-faceted and long-standing in Alaskan and British Columbian First Nations history. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sea otters were hunted to near extinction and became locally eliminated from coastal oceans. In the absence of this primary reef predator, shellfish became abundant in coastal communities and fed on kelp beds in these ecosystems. The recovery of sea otter populations in the 1950’s in south central Alaska turned formerly lone otters into rafts of over thirty individuals, and kelp beds grew freely at the expense of fewer shellfish due to sea otter consumption.
“Sea otters are a keystone species, which means that one individual sea otter has a disproportionate effect on an ecosystem,” explained Salomon. “Only a few of them are needed to trigger a large impact, and when you start to see shellfish declines like that in your coastal refrigerator, you become very worried.”
Through work with two Sugpiaq native tribes, Salomon and her partners documented the serial decline of shellfish fisheries as sea otter populations recovered and fishing by humans intensified and became more concentrated.
Having observed this pattern in Alaska, Salomon knew the same pattern had been reported by scientists working on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Sea otter recovery, shellfish decline, and kelp forest expansion had also been observed by the Heiltsuk on BC’s central coast where sea otters began recovering in the late 1980s and the Nuu-chah-nulth on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where sea otters were intentionally reintroduced in the early 1970s.
“If you don’t know anything about the past, you would have no idea that Vancouver once had an old growth forest and that there were massive cedars here,” said Salomon. “But, if you know something about the past, you can assess the magnitude of change from today and identify baselines that give you targets to shoot for when it comes to recovery.
“By collaborating with the Haida who have not yet experienced any sea otter recovery, different first nations knowledge holders like the Heiltsuk, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Sugpiaq who are experiencing different stages of sea otter recovery, and marine ecologists and archaeologists who’ve studied sea otter effects over time, we essentially have a crystal ball into the past and the future,” Salomon continued.
Haida matriarch Barb Wilson and Sugpiaq seal hunter Nicolas Tanape Sr. will act as Salomon’s cultural guides, ensuring that her group follows each First Nations’ community protocols as they begin their research synthesis.
Wilson described that her ancestors explained that sea otters were not only kept at low numbers close to native villages, but special focus was placed on hunting males, who segregate themselves from females into their own raft of otters. Because sea otters feast on shellfish, First Nations groups had several forms of traditional management to control the effects of this predator.
“The reason I found this so interesting is because there is strong evidence that male sea otters are responsible for expanding their territory or ranges. If you can control the male rafts, you can partially control where in space sea otters hang out,” says Salomon. “This is just one little gem that Barb Wilson shared with me that I think are the kinds of gems that will arise when we bring everyone together.”
Two marine spatial planning processes, including one joint provincial and First Nations process, are currently in progress in BC. Salomon hopes her findings will further First Nations contributions to scientific research and allow these groups to voice their concerns on choices affecting their native homes. “Canadian First Nations have a constitutional right to be involved in cooperative decision making,” said Salomon.
Local First Nations artists will also attend Salomon’s meetings with policy makers and other workshops with First Nations’ people to document the process and outcomes of each event through art.
“Scientists are typically poor communicators to the public, so another goal here is to communicate this collaborative science to everybody, including the public and policy makers,” said Salomon. “People learn and listen with their eyes, nose, and ears, so I think this is a way to capture the attention and interest of people far beyond our scientific meta-analyses that are dry and hard to communicate to the public.”
“When sea otters come back, it catalyses controversy and ignites people’s emotions because people are invested in these issues,” Salomon concluded.
“This project truly is about bringing people and scientists together to inform marine policies to balance the needs of people and nature.”
