A Feast to Commemorate—and Mourn—the Eulachon

Abstract

Fisheries biologists joined indigenous communities from along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, this spring for a gathering of "mourning and shame" to publicize and protest the population decline of eulachon (Thaleichthys pacifiais), a fish important to traditional cultures. Future research, he suggested, should focus on three areas: developing coastwide assessments; learning more about the role of the estuatine environment on eulachons and their salinity tolerance; and collecting more information on marine and offshore bycatch issues, including impacts on fish that may be killed or injured by trawling.