Please don't suggest that they should harvest by using traditional methods in a canoe too, when there are hundreds of jet boats roaming around during the season. This is a case of traditional values clashing with industrialization.
Rod,
I've got to take issue with this statement.
It IS a clash, and THEY have to make a choice. We all had to make a choice as we modernised. (the US for example had to decide that keeping slaves was wrong, despite it being a traditional European value at the time.) The FN have obviously made the choice to try to have their cake and eat it too.
It was fine when they attempted to harvest fish in tradtional vessels, and people died, and there were limits. This meant that not eveyone and his dog went out and harvested the river bare. It was a natural control on the harvest. Now, they have improved safety measures, and better boats with engines, and larger capacity, and it means that even someone's grandmother could get out there and take a whack of fish. This means that they are no longer naturally limited, and that the resource will be depleted AGAIN (Just like we did when we gained motorized boats etc - Someone's got to learn!)
If you want the perks of modern society, you're going to have to give up some "tradition" This is the definition of a culture, not a stagnant definition that never evolves. Non-evolving cultures DIED OUT, and continue to do so.
My $0.02
Author
Topic: First Nations Fraser River Fisheries July 30th - August 1st (Read 10679 times)