New Bering Sea ecosystem plan incorporates local and traditional knowledge
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a groundbreaking fisheries ecosystem plan for the Bering Sea that incorporates local and traditional knowledge. Alaska Sea Grant coastal community resilience specialist Davin Holen was appointed by the council to assist in writing the subsistence and local and traditional knowledge sections of the plan. Holen also provided expertise on how to more effectively include subsistence and traditional and local knowledge into fisheries management. It’s one of the first times that local and traditional knowledge has been formally incorporated in the regional council’s management plan for fisheries. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight councils responsible for managing the nation’s coastal fisheries. The council has used an ecosystem approach for years but has recently improved it by including climate change impacts and local and traditional knowledge.
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