Aboriginal fisher perspectives on use of biotelemetry technology to study adult Pacific salmon

Abstract

Biotelemetry has become a popular tool accepted by the scientific community as a reliable approach for studying wild fish. However, stakeholder perspectives on scientific techniques and the information they generate are not uniformly positive. Aboriginal groups in particular may have opposition or apprehension to telemetry as a research tool. To that end, we conducted a river-bank survey of 111 aboriginal First Nations fishers that target adult Pacific salmon in the lower Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. The majority of respondents had heard of telemetry, but few had knowledge of its function. Most responses regarding the use of telemetry in fisheries science were positive. The few negative perspectives were primarily concerned about the effects of tagging procedures whereas positive perspectives arose because telemetry was perceived to generate information on migration patterns and survival. Over half of the respondents would trust data arising from telemetry studies, but some had conditions related to the group conducting the research and their experience with fish handling. Several respondents noted the need for additional consultation and outreach with aboriginal communities (especially fishers) to better inform them of study questions and techniques which, in the case of telemetry studies, could promote better participation in tag return programs and uptake of knowledge emanating from use of telemetry. © ONEMA, 2012.