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Contested Waters: The Struggle for Rights and Reconciliation in the Atlantic Fishery
A timely anthology featuring diverse perspectives – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – on the right to fish in the Atlantic, with the goal of creating dialogue and solutions. Canadians were shocked in the fall of 2020 by news coverage of non-Indigenous crowds threatening Mi'kmaw fish harvesters and burning boats and plant buildings in southwest Nova Scotia. The crisis began when a few Mi'kmaq Nations began to issue their own licenses to community members to conduct small-scale lobster fishing to earn "moderate livelihoods", a treaty right recognized in the Marshall ruling. Non-Indigenous harvesters reacted, some of them violently, against the idea of a new fishery operating outside DFO-regulated licensing, seasons, and fishing zones. With the major issues still unresolved, numerous flashpoints hold potential for future conflict. The question now where do we go from here? With contributions from Mi'kmaw leaders, academic researchers, legal experts, non-Indigenous industry leaders, and other knowledgeable observers on all sides of the conflict, Contested The Struggle for Rights and Reconciliation in the Atlantic Fishery provides a respectful and realistic examination of Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives with the goal of encouraging dialogue and a shared search for lasting solutions.
- GenresFood
240 pages, Paperback
Published November 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 15, 2024
Helpful summary of the important players and the basis of their different viewpoints. Fun seeing a lot of the people I meet with at work quoted in the book.
Good primer and expanded my understanding of Moderate Livelihood rights. Might be a bit too technical for people without a fisheries policy background.
A bit boring of course, but to be expected from something not intended for the mass market.
Good primer and expanded my understanding of Moderate Livelihood rights. Might be a bit too technical for people without a fisheries policy background.
A bit boring of course, but to be expected from something not intended for the mass market.
March 19, 2026
4.5 stars
The 2020 outburst of racist violence against Indigenous fishers in SW Nova Scotia was the catalyst for this book in which Indigenous and non Indigenous activists, leaders, politicians and scientists are working to find a way to mutual understanding and restorative justice. It is ultimately hopeful and bases its optimistic conclusions on the experience of many First Nation peoples and non-Indigenous people wanting to live and work together in equality in Atlantic Canada.
One problem is that most First Nation people in Atlantic Canada as it now known, have experienced staggering levels of racism and exclusion from the federal government and many white Canadians. But their strength is both community and self organisation and the people who lead battles to assert their rights to fish, fighting off racist laws and law enforcers have been heroic. Donald Marshall Junior, a Mi’kmaq member of the Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia survived years of prison from his teenage years for a murder he didn’t commit. His determination to assert his rights and fish for eel in the 1990s ultimately led to the 1999 Marshall Decision from the Supreme Court that, “affirmed, First Nations’ treaty right to fish, hunt, and gather in pursuit of a moderate livelihood.“
The editors detail the progress that First Nation peoples have achieved since the Marshall decision in getting licences, fishing gear and boats and the improvements in community incomes and resources. This progress isn’t enough yet because colonialism and racism creates objective conditions. Many of these communities were deliberately made unemployed and kept poor by Settler Colonial laws and institutions that persist. Years in prison were likely to have contributed to Donald Marshall’s early death at 55 years old.
The authors show how self-organised initiatives by Indigenous communities to create a child centred, culturally sensitive education system with the federal Department of Education ensured that around 90% of First Nation children in Nova Scotia are able to graduate high school. In the 1990s only 25% of First Nation children made it through a school system where many felt unwelcome and unvalued .
The other source of animosity towards “new fishers” is that the area has become the centre of a lobster commodification boom worth billions of Canadian dollars annually. But most of the money from this boom isn’t going to fishers but to processing companies and exporters. This is why seven First Nations collectively worked for years to achieve their recent purchase of 50 percent of Clearwater Seafoods, the largest shellfish processing company in North America.
The book has a tendency to be optimistic about the condition and future of the lobster fishery itself. The fishery’s proper regulation is noted in contrast to the Grand Banks cod fisheries that finally collapsed in 1993, except that Grand Banks was one of the most regulated fisheries at the time. Those regulations failed because they prioritised profit and the lobster fishery is also at risk because its profitability means a built in incentive to flout the rules. Some of the rules are inadequate anyway. There is also an ecological crisis developing in the northern Atlantic driven by warming water related to climate change, pollution and overfishing of targeted species such as herring for lobster bait. None of this gets much of a mention.
Nevertheless the book’s focus is important and shows that practical solutions to inequality and racism are likely to come from members of the First Nations and non-Indigenous communities who recognise that Indigenous fishers are not their enemy. Those willing to work together and recognise their shared interests have built solidarity and could be even stronger together against all that ageing capitalism and climate change is going to throw at them.
The 2020 outburst of racist violence against Indigenous fishers in SW Nova Scotia was the catalyst for this book in which Indigenous and non Indigenous activists, leaders, politicians and scientists are working to find a way to mutual understanding and restorative justice. It is ultimately hopeful and bases its optimistic conclusions on the experience of many First Nation peoples and non-Indigenous people wanting to live and work together in equality in Atlantic Canada.
One problem is that most First Nation people in Atlantic Canada as it now known, have experienced staggering levels of racism and exclusion from the federal government and many white Canadians. But their strength is both community and self organisation and the people who lead battles to assert their rights to fish, fighting off racist laws and law enforcers have been heroic. Donald Marshall Junior, a Mi’kmaq member of the Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia survived years of prison from his teenage years for a murder he didn’t commit. His determination to assert his rights and fish for eel in the 1990s ultimately led to the 1999 Marshall Decision from the Supreme Court that, “affirmed, First Nations’ treaty right to fish, hunt, and gather in pursuit of a moderate livelihood.“
The editors detail the progress that First Nation peoples have achieved since the Marshall decision in getting licences, fishing gear and boats and the improvements in community incomes and resources. This progress isn’t enough yet because colonialism and racism creates objective conditions. Many of these communities were deliberately made unemployed and kept poor by Settler Colonial laws and institutions that persist. Years in prison were likely to have contributed to Donald Marshall’s early death at 55 years old.
The authors show how self-organised initiatives by Indigenous communities to create a child centred, culturally sensitive education system with the federal Department of Education ensured that around 90% of First Nation children in Nova Scotia are able to graduate high school. In the 1990s only 25% of First Nation children made it through a school system where many felt unwelcome and unvalued .
The other source of animosity towards “new fishers” is that the area has become the centre of a lobster commodification boom worth billions of Canadian dollars annually. But most of the money from this boom isn’t going to fishers but to processing companies and exporters. This is why seven First Nations collectively worked for years to achieve their recent purchase of 50 percent of Clearwater Seafoods, the largest shellfish processing company in North America.
The book has a tendency to be optimistic about the condition and future of the lobster fishery itself. The fishery’s proper regulation is noted in contrast to the Grand Banks cod fisheries that finally collapsed in 1993, except that Grand Banks was one of the most regulated fisheries at the time. Those regulations failed because they prioritised profit and the lobster fishery is also at risk because its profitability means a built in incentive to flout the rules. Some of the rules are inadequate anyway. There is also an ecological crisis developing in the northern Atlantic driven by warming water related to climate change, pollution and overfishing of targeted species such as herring for lobster bait. None of this gets much of a mention.
Nevertheless the book’s focus is important and shows that practical solutions to inequality and racism are likely to come from members of the First Nations and non-Indigenous communities who recognise that Indigenous fishers are not their enemy. Those willing to work together and recognise their shared interests have built solidarity and could be even stronger together against all that ageing capitalism and climate change is going to throw at them.
October 16, 2023
Read like I was reading a textbook for an environmental studies class. But, still an interesting read to learn about the conflicts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous in the Maritimes fishing industry. As one of my favorite professors from BU would say, “it’s a messy problem.” But, one with great potential to be a positive fishing area for all parties involved in the conflict.
April 18, 2023
i have to write an 1000word book review for my class so ill get back to you with a review
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews