Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All UNF Research Unifying Negotiation Framework 2008 Accurate Mental Maps as an Aspect of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK): A Case Study from Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland John McKenna University of Ulster Rory J. Quinn University of Ulster Daniel J. Donnelly J. Andrew G. Cooper University of Ulster Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/unf_research Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation McKenna, J., R. J. Quinn, D. J. Donnelly and J. A. G. Cooper. 2008. Accurate mental maps as an aspect of local ecological knowledge (LEK): a case study from Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. Ecology and Society 13(1): 13. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Unifying Negotiation Framework at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All UNF Research by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright © 2008 by the author(s). Published here under license by the Resilience Alliance. McKenna, J., R. J. Quinn, D. J. Donnelly and J. A. G. Cooper. 2008. Accurate mental maps as an aspect of local ecological knowledge (LEK): a case study from Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. Ecology and Society 13(1): 13. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art13/ Research Accurate Mental Maps as an Aspect of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK): a Case Study from Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland John McKenna 1, Rory J. Quinn 2, Daniel J. Donnelly, and J. Andrew G. Cooper 3 ABSTRACT. A mental map of the substrate of Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, compiled from interviews with local fishermen, is compared with maps produced by science-based techniques. The comparison reveals that the mental map is highly accurate. This finding contrasts with the spatial distortion characteristic of the classic mental map. The accuracy of the Lough Neagh map is attributed to the fact that it is a compendium of the knowledge of several generations, rather than an individual perception. Individual distortions are filtered out, and accuracy is promoted by economic self-interest. High accuracy may be characteristic of the mental maps held by artisanal exploiters of natural resources. Key Words: Geophysical survey; LEK; local environmental knowledge; Lough Neagh; mental maps; Northern Ireland; traditional fishery INTRODUCTION As part of this interest in indigenous resource use, an extensive literature has built up debating the In recent decades, there has been an increasing merits of using the (typically) qualitative anecdotal interest in, and respect for, traditional systems of knowledge of resource users alongside scientifically resource exploitation (Folke et al. 2007). In the area acquired data in the management of natural of common property resources, for example, many resources. Some are strongly in favor of this workers have emphasized the fact that traditional approach, but resistance comes both from those who methods of exploitation have produced long-term fear that indigenous knowledge is simply being sustainability—in some cases over millennia exploited by the dominant “western” culture (e.g., (Berkes and Farvar 1989, Larson and Bromley in the pharmaceutical industry), and those in the 1990, Ostrom et al. 1999). This shift in attitude is science community who are unconvinced that its also well illustrated in the case of fishing (Acheson quality is high enough to be consistently useful. 1989, Ruddle 1989). The long-term sustainability Debate is hampered by tortuous agonizing over of some traditional fisheries is contrasted with the terminology and nomenclature, with some ecological, economic, and social misfortunes researchers insisting that terms such as caused by non-sustainable “industrial” exploitation, “traditional,” “indigenous,” “folk,” and “native” are e.g., the catastrophic collapse of important fisheries ambiguous at best, and culturally loaded at worst. such as those in the North Sea and on the Grand (See, e.g., the discussions on terminology in Banks off Newfoundland (Finlayson and McCay Woodward and Lewis (1998, page 2), and Ellen and 1998). Interest in traditional systems of resource use Harris (2000, pages 2–3). The most commonly used is also evident in other fields, e.g., Shipman and terms and their acronyms are “indigenous Stojanovic (2007) criticize an over-reliance on environmental knowledge” (IEK or IK), “local technical approaches in coastal management. They environmental knowledge” (LEK), and “traditional believe that this ignores the value of indigenous environmental knowledge” (TEK). (Some writers knowledge, both “traditional” as in the case of prefer to use the word “ecological” rather than fishermen, and also empirical, local knowledge held “environmental”.) In this paper, we have chosen to by modern commercial and recreational users of use LEK as it seems to be the most neutral term, and coastal resources. has fewer external connotations. Local, of course, 1Centre for Coastal and Marine Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, 2Lecturer in Marine Archaeological Geophysics, Centre for Maritime Archaeology, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, 3Professor of Coastal Science, Centre for Coastal and Marine Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster Ecology and Society 13(1): 13 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art13/ does not necessarily mean traditional. For example, the paper. What is new is the semi-quantitative surfers and recreational divers have local and comparison of a “traditional” mental map with two empirically derived knowledge of inshore bedforms science-based maps, after careful assessment of the and currents (one of the co-authors of this paper has error margins of the latter. To our knowledge this used this local knowledge in a coastal research has not been done before in such an objective context). However, we continue to use the term manner. “traditional” when it seems appropriate to the context. Woodward and Lewis (1998, page 2) discuss the problems with this descriptor, but on THE LOUGH NEAGH FISHERY balance they judge that it can be useful in discussion. Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the The paper looks at the communal knowledge bank British Isles (Fig.1). Its physical, hydrological, and of the fishermen in a traditional fishery in Lough ecological characteristics are described in detail in Neagh, Northern Ireland. The paper explicitly sets the text edited by Wood and Smith (1993). The out to rigorously assess the objective accuracy of lough is aligned in a general north–south direction, one aspect of the fishermen’s LEK, their mental and has an almost rectangular plan. Maximum (cognitive) map of the geography of the habitat. This length is ca. 30 km along a SW to NE axis, whereas map does not have a hardcopy graphical width varies from ca. 12 km to 16 km west to east. representation, but it represents the accumulated The lough has a maximum depth of just over 30 m knowledge of generations of fishermen and is in the northwest corner, but only 3% is below 20 m passed down to new generations as they learn the and the average depth is only ca. 9 m. fishermen’s craft. The fishery is centuries old, and is carried on by a The genesis of the paper owes little to either fishing distinctive community. Donnelly (1986) gives a or LEK. In 1996–1997, three of the four authors detailed description of the fishery as it was around were part of a University of Ulster team 20 years ago. There were then around 250 fishing commissioned by a government department to carry families, totalling approximately 1550 persons. out a side-scan sonar survey of the bed of Lough There were 500 active fishermen, operating 226 Neagh. This information was required because of fishing boats out of around 50 small inlets or concerns that the scale of ongoing sand extraction “coves.” Sixty percent of the fishermen worked by licensed suction dredges might be negatively from the western shore. In order of commercial impacting the lough. importance, the main fisheries on Lough Neagh were eel (Anguilla anguilla), perch (Perca Almost 10 years later, the University team became fluviatilis), pollan (Coregonus pollan) (a fresh water aware of the existence of a mental map of the lough’s herring), and trout (Salmo trutta). substrate in a book by a social geographer, D. J. Donnelly, published a decade before the side-scan The main fishing methods used were draft net, sonar survey was carried out. The close resemblance trammel net, and long line. The most widely between the mental map and the side-scan sonar practiced method was draft netting, which was used map prompted us to check the accuracy of the mental to catch eels (the main catch), perch, and image against two technically acquired images— occasionally trout and pollan. The draft is a long, the sonograph described above and a published bag-shaped net pulled in a semi-circular sweep by Admiralty chart. This seemed to us the logical a boat. The trammel net is a vertically orientated gill approach to take, as we were already familiar with net about 2 m deep and about 40 m long, used the accuracy standards of the technical sources, but variously as a floating surface net, in mid-water, or did not have equivalent information for the mental sunk to the bottom. It was used to catch perch, trout, map. In the latter case, we had no more than a general and pollan. Baited long lines extending for ca. 10 qualitative impression of accuracy. km, with up to 2000 hooks on the line and weighted to lie on the bed of the lough, have been traditionally The claim to originality and innovation in this paper used for catching eels. lies in the comparison of existing sources of data. The side-scan sonar map of Lough Neagh is our own Currently (2008), the fishery shows significant work and has not previously been published, but we changes from the situation in the mid 1980s.