Considerations for Implementing an Adaptive Management Herring Rebuilding Strategy Using Local Interventions in BC by Wanli Ou B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2008 Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Resource Management Report No. 609 in the School of Resource and Environmental Management Faculty of Environment Wanli Ou 2014 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2014 Approval Name: Wanli Ou Degree: Master of Resource Management Project No.: 609 Title: Considerations for Implementing an Adaptive Management Herring Rebuilding Strategy Using Local Interventions in BC Examining Committee: Chair: Caitlin Millar MRM Candidate Dr. Murray B. Rutherford Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Ashleen J. Benson Supervisor Adjunct Professor Date Defended/Approved: December 02, 2014 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Ethics Statement iv Abstract Despite widespread fisheries efforts to rebuild fisheries, the recovery of depleted stocks is still poorly understood. In British Columbia, researchers have been attempting to understand the factors limiting the recovery of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) stocks, which have experienced declines to below harvestable levels in the past decade. Adaptive management is a policy innovation, invented to address problems in natural resource management by treating management interventions as experiments and monitoring the system’s feedbacks. I examine the institutional, social, and ecological considerations for implementing an adaptive management experimental program to rebuild herring stocks, through the use of two ongoing and proposed local management interventions. I highlight opportunities to overcome barriers to program implementation, and provide experimental design recommendations to evaluate the success of these interventions, given existing uncertainties about herring stock structure and variability. Implementing such a program could facilitate learning about how to rebuild Pacific herring populations and fisheries. Keywords: Adaptive management; Pacific herring, Fisheries management; Implementation; Policy innovation; Local management interventions v Acknowledgements I would like to first thank the Heiltsuk, who welcomed me on their unceded territory in the summer of 2012. I have been humbled by my interactions with many of you and am constantly learning. Thank you especially to Keith Gladstone, whose enthusiasm set me down this research path to begin with. I would also like to extend a huge thank you to Kelly Brown at the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department. I am especially indebted to my friend, Desiree Lawson, whose wit knows no bounds. Thank you to Dr. Dana Lepofsky, the Hakai Herring School, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council for research funding over the years, as well as to the Hakai Institute for its hospitality and generosity. I am grateful to Chuck Smythe and the Sealaska Heritage Institute for your hospitality, specifically for inviting me up to Stika and providing such an excellent opportunity for information sharing. Thank you to my senior supervisor, Murray Rutherford, who patiently guided me through my circuitous and often over-ambitious research process. Thank you for putting up with my incessant questions and handling my sarcasm with grace. I am grateful to my committee supervisor Ashleen Benson, whose much-appreciated practicality pulled me back to reality many times in helping me scope this research. I am immensely thankful for the encouragement and advice from my colleagues and professors in the Fisheries Science and Management Group. Thank you to Sean Cox and Andy Cooper, for drilling in the subtleties of fisheries science and management. Thank you to all Remmers whose encouragement and motivation helped immensely throughout this process – to Courtney Druce, Holly Nesbitt, Michelle Jones, Pascale Gibeau, Lindsay Gardner, and Caitlin Millar. Thank you so much. Special thanks to Adam Keizer – your always-practical advice, and your kind words of encouragement and compassion were much needed. Thank you to my family, who did not want to know so much about fisheries management, still probably do not understand what exactly it is I do, and never will. I love you all the same. And to my partner Karianne, thank you for your patience, love, care, kindness, and humour. Thank you for putting up with me when I am completely overwhelmed, always knowing what to do in those moments, and putting on Beyoncé’s “Love on Top” video whenever you don't. I promise to get us a well-needed vacation and kittens. I also promise that I will not get “academia amnesia” and pursue a PhD. Lastly, thanks to my friends - sorry I have been such a hermit. Let’s finally eat and drink all the things. vi Table of Contents Approval .............................................................................................................................ii Partial Copyright Licence .................................................................................................. iii Ethics Statement ...............................................................................................................iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................vi Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vii List of Tables .....................................................................................................................ix List of Figures.................................................................................................................... x General Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Background ....................................................................................................................... 1 Thesis Project Overview ................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 Learning From Experience: Four Cases of Adaptive Management in BC Fisheries ................................................................... 5 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 5 1.2 A Brief History of Adaptive Management as a Policy Innovation ............................. 8 1.3 Implementing Innovations in Institutions ................................................................ 11 1.3.1 The Implementation of Innovations ............................................................ 11 1.3.2 The Institutional Context for Adaptive Management in DFO ...................... 13 1.4 Methods ................................................................................................................. 14 1.4.1 Key Attributes of Adaptive Management .................................................... 15 1.4.2 Adaptive Management in DFO’s Policies ................................................... 17 1.4.3 Adaptive Management in DFO Case studies ............................................. 17 Frameworks for Analyzing Implementation of Adaptive Management as a Policy Innovation .............................................................................................. 20 Effects of Adaptive Management Initiatives ........................................................... 21 1.4.4 Study Limitations ........................................................................................ 21 1.5 Results ................................................................................................................... 22 1.5.1 Adaptive Management in DFO – Policies ................................................... 22 1.5.2 Adaptive Management in DFO – Case Studies .......................................... 26 Rivers Inlet Sockeye Salmon Experimental Fishery Program (based on Walters et al. 1993).......................................................................................... 26 Pacific Ocean Perch Experimental Fisheries (based on Leaman and Stanley 1993) ................................................................................................... 28 BC Hydro - DFO Bridge River Flow Experiment (based on Failing et al. 2004, Gregory et al. 2005, Hunter et al. 2008, and Bradford et al. 2011) ....... 31 Giant Red Sea Cucumber Fishery’s AM Program (based on Perry et al. 1999, Phillips and Boutillier 1998, Humble 2005, DFO 2011b, and DFO 2011c) .............................................................................................................. 34 1.6 Discussion - Cross-case Comparison .................................................................... 36 Type of AM Implemented in AM Initiatives ............................................................ 36 Factors that Influenced Implementation of AM Initiatives ...................................... 37 Cultural ............................................................................................................ 38 Structural ......................................................................................................... 39 Individual .......................................................................................................... 41 vii Other Effects of Implementing AM Initiatives