Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Collaborative Exploration of Environmental Change, Fisheries, and Fishing Communities in Old Harbor, AK

越来越多的环境领域的研究人员开始关注环境问题跨学科，文化，地理和知识边界的方式。 渔业，特别是北极和亚北极地区的渔业，表现出文化、生物、政治和经济因素的复杂相互作用，可能不适合单一的学科调查。 在上个世纪经历了巨大的生态和政治变化的一种渔业是太平洋大比目鱼（Hippoglosus stenolepis）渔业。 该项目将采用多地点和多方法的办法，调查阿拉斯加科迪亚克岛西部地区周围大比目鱼渔业的历史。 在该项目的过程中，研究人员将研究渔业，气候和两个群体之间的复杂相互作用，这两个群体产生了关于太平洋比目鱼渔业的知识：老港的社区成员，科迪亚克岛上的阿拉斯加土著渔业社区，以及国际太平洋比目鱼委员会，总部设在西雅图的政府间机构，管理和进行大部分渔业科学研究。 口述历史的方法，包括访谈和参与观察，将被用来了解老港的渔业历史及其在该地区的社会和经济发展中的作用。 通过这种方式，研究人员希望深入了解渔业变化发生的历史和文化背景。除了太平洋比目鱼渔业的社会经济历史外，研究人员还将采用生物年代学技术，以发展科迪亚克地区太平洋比目鱼生长的生物历史。 通过研究大比目鱼耳石中增量的变化宽度，将重建外部因素（如气候、污染和开发）对鱼类种群的影响。 利用国际太平洋比目鱼委员会存档的耳石，将建立一个大约100年的生长年表。 研究人员的意图是，该项目将展示生物年代学作为探索气候变化对生物体长期潜在影响的工具的效用，大比目鱼生物年代学将为渔业社区和渔业生物学家提供关于该区域大比目鱼种群生物历史的关键技术信息。 此外，口述历史的组成部分可以提供重要的信息，社区的关系和大比目鱼渔业的经验，应被视为决策者，因为他们在未来制定新的渔业政策，特别是在面对大规模的气候变化。 这项研究将探讨社区关于渔业的论述和与渔业的关系与科学叙述相比的方式，并将寻求将这些观点结合在一起的方法。 它牢固地建立在一个不断发展的知识体系之上，科学家们已经开始把重点放在地方生态系统的“地方”或“传统”知识类别上。 此外，它们还开始制定理论框架，将有关环境的科学知识和地方知识结合起来。 这项研究的潜在发现不仅将为当地资源管理者和社区提供对其资源的新见解，还将为当前对环境，科学和地方知识建设的理论理解提供见解。

Increasingly researchers in environmental fields have begun to focus on the ways in which environmental concerns cross disciplinary, cultural, geographic, and knowledge boundaries. Fisheries, particularly those in the Arctic and sub-artic regions, exhibit a complex interplay of cultural, biological, political, and economic factors, which may not be suited to a single disciplinary investigation. One such fishery, that has experienced dramatic ecological and political changes over the course of the last century, is the Pacific Halibut (Hippoglosus stenolepis) fishery. This project will utilize a multi-sited and multi-methodological approach in order to investigate the history of the halibut fishery, surrounding the western region of Kodiak Island, Alaska. During the course of the project, the researcher will examine the complex interactions between the fishery, climate, and two groups who produce knowledge about the Pacific Halibut fishery: community members of Old Harbor, an Alaska Native fishing community on Kodiak Island, and the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the Seattle-based intergovernmental body that manages and conducts most of the scientific research on the fishery. Oral history methodologies, including interviews and participant observation, will be utilized to understand Old Harbor's history of the fishery and its role in the social and economic development of the region. In this way, the researcher hopes to gain insight into the historical and cultural context in which changes to the fishery take place.In addition to the social-economic history of the Pacific Halibut fishery, the researcher will employ the technique of biochronology in order to develop a biological history of Pacific halibut growth in the Kodiak region. By examining the changing widths of increments found in halibut otoliths, the ways in which external factors such as climate, pollution, and exploitation act on fish populations will be reconstructed. Using the International Pacific Halibut Commission archived otoliths, a chronology will be built for approximately 100 years of growth. It is the researcher's intent that the project will demonstrate the utility of biochronology as a tool for exploring the potential impacts of climate change on organisms over time and that halibut biochronology will provide key technical information to fishing communities and to fisheries biologists about the biological history of halibut populations in the region. In addition, the oral history component can provide important information about the community relationship with and experience of the halibut fishery which should be considered policy makers as they develop new fishery policies in the future, particularly in the face of large scale climatic changes. This research will explore ways in which the community discourse about and relationship with the fishery compares to that of the scientific narratives and will seek ways to bring these perspectives together. It is firmly grounded in a developing body of knowledge where scientists have begun to focus on 'local' or 'traditional' knowledge categories for local ecological systems. In addition, they have begun to develop theoretical frameworks for bringing together scientific and local knowledge about the environment together. The potential findings from this research will not only provide local resource managers and communities with new insights into their resources, it will provide insights into current theoretical understandings of the environment, science, and the construction of local knowledge.