Paqtnkek fishers call for unity in Mi'kmaw nation to address elver fishing

Often the first meal given to babies transitioning from their mother's milk and the final meal for elders making their journey to the spirit world, the eel has significance in the Mi'kmaw culture.

Kerry Prosper, an elder and councillor from Paqtnkek Mi'kmaw Nation, roughly 240 km northeast of Halifax, is among those concerned for the future of the eels with the surge in elver (baby eel) fishing.

There's been increased Mi'kmaw involvement in the industry, but not all Mi'kmaw fishers support elver harvesting.

"People need to make a living but we have to really decide how we're going to make a living and what are the consequences to our seven generations, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren," said Prosper.

Prosper harvests eels for family and community members, and describes them as a dependable food source for the Mi'kmaw nation, especially in times of food scarcity.

The American Eel was assessed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 2012 but has yet to be listed for protection under the Species At Risk Act.

According to COSEWIC's 2012 assessment, the eels face multiple threats: dams acting as barriers to spawning habitat, hydroelectric turbine-related deaths, habitat degradation and parasites.

"When you see that happening and you see the collapse of the large eel fishery from commercial fishing and you see the introduction of a baby eel fishery right at the collapse… what's it gonna do and how can you define conservation in that kind of a fishery?" said Prosper. 

Prosper's appreciation for eel is tied to a place where he has memories of spearing eel – Welneg or "beautiful bay" in Pomquet Harbour just outside Paqtnkek. 

It was at this spot that Prosper gave permission to Donald Marshall Jr. to fish in 1993 and where he was charged for fishing and selling eels without a licence, leading to over six years of litigation.

The Supreme Court of Canada's Sparrow decision in 1990 confirmed that Indigenous people have a constitutional right to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes. 

"Donald was thinking, what is social? Can we fish for our communities? Can we trade it? Can we sell it?" said Prosper.

"Our treaty said we could and so he was selling eels."

The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in his favour in 1999, affirming the Mi'kmaw right under the Peace and Friendship treaties to hunt, fish and gather in the pursuit of a "moderate livelihood." The decision also implicated the Wolastoqiyik and the Peskotomuhkati.

Following this decision, the federal government introduced fisheries initiatives for First Nations in the Atlantic provinces, offering equipment, training and regulated access in exchange for federal oversight of the moderate livelihood fisheries. 

While many Mi'kmaw communities now engage in these federally managed fisheries, others continue to assert their treaty rights independently – particularly in lobster and more recently elver fishing. 

Prosper said he's proud to see Mi'kmaq exercising their rights but cautions that a unified approach between communities is needed, especially when harvesting a threatened species like eel. 

"Think about netukulimk, our connection to all of life here, and etuaptmumk, or two-eyed seeing," he said.

"I see [the words] in their management plans, but I don't see it in their mind. I don't see it in their heart."

Population decline

Prosper has passed his teachings on harvesting and respecting eels to his family and his community, Paqtnkek, the only Mi'kmaw community in Nova Scotia choosing not to be involved with the elver fishery.

His grandson, Kaeden Prosper, 20, shares this concern. 

"Eels…they're everything," said Kaeden Prosper.

"I grew up fishing them my whole life. It's something I hold dear to my heart."

Kaeden Prosper remembers how as a seven-year-old he'd go out on the ice and catch five to 10 eels per hole. He said now after a full day of fishing he's lucky to come home with maybe five eels. 

"Seeing the population decline, it hurts my heart," he said.

"It makes me concerned for my kids."

He said his grandfather's generation didn't have the privilege to grow up with acknowledged moderate livelihood rights the way he did.

"That right was recognized by eels," he said.

"It was eels that brought our rights back, and then here you are abusing that same animal that brought those rights back."

Both Kaeden and his grandfather recognize the economic pressures many Mi'kmaw families are facing and say they understand why some have entered the lucrative fishery.

But Kerry Prosper said he hopes to see Mi'kmaw communities come together on a shared vision for the future. 

"[Mi'kmaq] have to go all in together in exercising our treaty rights and respecting them and managing them," he said.

"We've got to be a nation."