Our goal  is to help our people from Kuskokwim Bay to Bering Strait work together as one voice to protect subsistence use areas and places of ecological significance that are necessary to support the species we depend on.  We must be engaged in the decision-making process in order to protect our waters from the potential expansion of bottom trawling. A unified approach will weave traditional knowledge together with western science in a way that will best protect our subsistence way of life.

Subsistence Mapping

From 2008 - 2011, the Bering Sea Elders Advisory Group and Alaska Marine Conservation Council undertook a northern Bering Sea subsistence mapping project. The goal was to compile spatial information about hunting and fishing use in the ocean across the Yukon-Kuskokwim and Bering Strait regions. We combined that information with scientific data showing ecologically important areas for the species we rely on . We conducted mapping interviews with Elders and current hunters and fishermen in 17 villages and used maps created by the Coastal Resource Service Areas. 

The map report, called The Northern Bering Sea: Our Way of Life, was completed in September 2011. The maps are one dimensional without the cultural context from which they emerged. Therefore the map report provides excerpts from project interviews and other sources to connect the maps with the perspective of elders and active hunters.

The maps are intended to inform fishery management or other policy decisions that affect the resources used for subsistence and local small-scale fisheries, and the marine ecosystem that supports them.

Government-to-Government Consultation and the Fishery Management Process

The Bering Sea Elders Advisory Group anticipates a thorough government-to-government consultation between Tribes and the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

Working with CDQ Groups and the Fishing Industry

Bering Sea Elders intends to meet with our CDQ groups and representatives of the fishing industry to share our perspectives and look for common ground. The fishing companies operating nearby in Kuskokwim Bay, Etolin Strait and Nunivak Island have designated a liaison to help keep our communications flowing back and forth. The Elders Group welcomes an open approach to addressing these issues.

Timeline

2008-2011 – Subsistence mapping and collection of traditional knowledge already documented.

February 2010 - Northern Bering Sea Research Area (NBSRA) community and subsistence workshop - Anchorage, AK. (Read the report.)

January 17, 2011 - NBSRA workshop at Alaska Marine Science Symposium - Anchorage, AK.

January 26-28, 2011 - Bering Sea Elders Group, Nome Summit

June 2011 - Public evening session - Nome, AK.

June 2011 - North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting - Nome, AK. (Review bottom trawl boundary along   Nunivak Island, Etolin Strait and Kuskokwim Bay)

December 2011 – Bottom trawl fleet and Bering Sea Elders Group will report to North Pacific Fishery Management Council on the results of our discussion regarding concerns about nearshore bottom trawling in our subsistence use areas between Kuskokwim Bay and Nunivak Island.

2012 - Further deliberations at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council regarding future research on the effects of potential future bottom trawling in the northern Bering Sea.