Chapter 4 LIFE IN THE FAST FOOD CHAIN: OÙ SONT LES

This chapter reviews the decline in high trophic level or ‘table ’ fish on Canada’s Pacific coast in the context of global depletion, the potential extinction of marine species and the economic and social drivers of overfishing. Impacts on Aboriginal and other coastal communities are identified. Whole ecosystem (Ecosim) models of northern British Columbia as it was in the 1750s and present-day are used to determine the sustainable food production potential of both past and present systems under different exploitation scenarios. The food production potential of the 2000 and 1750s ecosystems was assessed under four twenty-five-year simulation scenarios. Results indicate that the 1750s system could have sustainably generated over twenty times the current annual food production in northern British Columbia’s capture fisheries, while meeting UN food security criteria including cultural appropriateness. The present-day system could sustainably produce six times the fisheries yields extracted today if the fleet was adjusted to meet UN criteria for responsible fishing, and fisheries were conducted optimally to make best use of the existing resources