Salmon, Science, and Reciprocity on the Northwest Coast

Ecology and Society, Vol. 14, No. 2, Art. 43, December 2009

George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 10-14

12 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2010 Last revised: 25 Feb 2015

Date Written: March 3, 2010

Abstract

Severe depletion of many genetically distinct Pacific salmon populations has spawned a contentious debate over causation and the efficacy of proposed solutions. No doubt the precipitating factor was overharvesting of the commons beginning along the Northwest Coast around 1860. Yet, for millenia before that, a relatively dense population of Indian tribes managed salmon stocks that have since been characterized as “superabundant.” This study investigates how they avoided a tragedy of the commons, where, in recent history, commercial ocean fishers guided by scientifically informed regulators have repeatedly failed. Unlike commercial fishers, the tribes enjoyed exclusive rights to terminal fisheries enforced through rigorous reciprocity relations. The available evidence is compelling that they actively husbanded their salmon stocks for sustained abundance.

Keywords: Alaska, Berkes, Boas, Brealey, Canada, Codere, Columbia River, Dietz, Douglass North, Dumbacher, exclusive tribal rights, Fraser River, Hardin, husbandry, Kareiva, Langdon, Mann, McChesney, Nowak, Ohtsuki, Ostrom, Piddocke, potlatching, resilience, Robert Thomas, Sigmund, Suttles, Trosper

JEL Classification: B10, B20, K32, N00, N51, N52, O13, Q22, Q25, Q26

Suggested Citation

Johnsen, D. Bruce, Salmon, Science, and Reciprocity on the Northwest Coast (March 3, 2010). Ecology and Society, Vol. 14, No. 2, Art. 43, December 2009, George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 10-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1564436

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