Dead Reckoning: Confronting the Crisis in Pacific Fisheries

Richard G. Kuhn is an associate professor of geography at the University
of Guelph.

The management and exploitation of renewable resources in Canada has
been under close scrutiny over the last decade. The travesty in the
Atlantic Canadian fisheries has exacerbated this trend and has humbled
many fishers and fisheries managers. Among the many lessons learned,
perhaps the most important is that management of our renewable resources
demands placing the ecological bases of the resource ahead of economic
considerations. The sustainability of resources depends almost entirely
on how we choose to exploit them. Against this backdrop, Glavin has
written a thought-provoking, troubling, and highly readable account of
the dangers present and looming in the western-Canadian Pacific fishery.
The book traces the evolution of the fishery leading up to the current
crisis. The bulk of the discussion is devoted to the introduction of
highly efficient technology (and the concomitant problem of
overcapitalization), the emergence and dominance of the large-scale
commercial fishing fleet, and the near-disappearance of the small-scale
local fisheries. Glavin is particularly sensitive to the aboriginal
fishery. Conflicts in the fisheries are raised through the presentation
of government, union, environmental, and community efforts to salvage
and then to maintain the resource.

Glavin has done a remarkable job of presenting the views of diverse and
often conflicting groups. Moving effortlessly between a journal-istic
style and a more rigorous analysis of pol-

icy proposals and initiatives, the book is engrossing and informative.
The concluding chapters, far from being bleak, present what many believe
(or will believe) is a viable long-term management strategy to maintain
the fisheries. Basing his suggestions on the principles of common
property resource management and local management models, Glavin
maintains that centralized management of the fisheries is inherently
destructive and must change. His argument for locally based small-scale
fisheries is con-vincing. This book is highly recommended.