smallpox, overfishing, industrialization destroyed 88% of harvestable food sources in burrard inlet: study
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michelle and michael george stand on a beach across from the westridge terminal in burrard inlet. the cultural and technical specialists with the tsleil-watuth nation co-wrote a report with the university of b.c. highlighting biodiversity loss in the inlet caused by overfishing and industrialization.
jason payne
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a first-of-its-kind study from the tsleil-waututh nation and the university of b.c. estimates that smallpox, overfishing and industrialization brought by settlers in the 18th century destroyed 88 per cent of harvestable food sources in the burrard inlet.
the study used archeology, historical ecology, archival records, ecological data and səlilwətaɬ (tsleil-waututh) knowledge to model the effects of colonial development on the amount of harvestable food in burrard inlet from 1750 to 1980.
“burrard inlet was a thriving ecosystem that had sustainable economics to feed the people, plus some, for thousands of years,” said michelle george, cultural and technical specialist with the tsleil-waututh nation and co-author of the study.
“that has been pretty much devastated.”
two of the most dramatic impacts highlighted by the model were the impact of smallpox and commercial overfishing. the first wave of smallpox, which occurred in 1782, killed as much as 80 per cent of the tsleil-waututh community. commercial fishing began around 1820, leading to severe overfishing that decimated many fish populations by the turn of the century.
before the initial smallpox outbreak, the study’s model showed decades of stable food sources, from salmon and herring to waterfowl, seals and bivalves, among dozens of others.
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shortly after smallpox killed an estimated 8,000 of the estimated 10,000 tsleil-waututh living in the area at the time, salmon, waterfowl and other animal populations began to swing wildly.
“having one thing missing from the food chain or one thing taken out, and you sort of see this collapse or continuous ripple effect throughout the food chain ecosystem, throughout our territory,” george said.
“predator populations exploded and prey plummeted” immediately after the first smallpox outbreak, suggesting not enough tsleil-waututh people survived to effectively steward the environment, said meaghan efford, a post-doctoral research fellow at ubc and lead author of the study.
“it shows how strong the relationship is between the tsleil-waututh and the ecosystem.”
the second of the two major impacts was the introduction of commercial fishing in the 1880s, which decimated many species of fish and the predators that fed on them.
“my ancestors talk about walking on the backs of fish and having so much fish that boats couldn’t pass,” george said.
efford said the archeological record from pre-colonial times suggests the inlet was an abundant food source.
“when you look at the archeological record, there are tens of thousands of salmon bones,” she said.
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and it wasn’t just salmon.
according to city of vancouver archives, calvert simson, who arrived at burrard inlet in 1884, told an interviewer in 1933 that herring in the inlet were so thick at the time that they could be caught with a rake.
“there were ‘acres’ of ducks in coal harbour, feeding on the herring,” he said.
herring populations were destroyed between 1880 and 1915, according to the study, which coincided with the rise of commercial fishing, including the opening of spratt’s oilery in coal harbour in 1882. spratt’s processed herring oil for use as an industrial lubricant.
chum and pink salmon in the inlet fell by 40 to 50 per cent from 1750 to 1980, according to the study.
herring and salmon were pillars of traditional səl̓ilwətaɬ diets. their loss from the səl̓ilwət (burrard inlet) ecosystem is a loss to both səl̓ilwətaɬ lifestyles and food sovereignty, george said.
“there’s a huge health gap and a huge health impact, because our people are not harvesting or eating traditional foods,” george said.
“the way that we went out and harvested foods, traditionally, there would have been cultural transmission” of traditional practices, stories and spiritual relevance to specific places and resources, george said.
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“it’s not just the environment and ecology, it’s also the people,” she said.
a recent project to restore elk, a traditional tsleil-waututh food source, to the indian river valley provides a striking example.
“not too long ago, we brought elk back to the indian river valley, and then we started harvesting the elk and bringing it back to the community,” said michael george, a cultural and technical specialist with the tsleil-waututh nation — and also michelle’s father.
“trying to get our caterers to cook with elk was difficult because they didn’t know how to do it with such lean meat because they’re accustomed to fattier beef,” he said.
spratt’s oilery in coal harbour, 1884, in a photograph taken by maj. james matthews.
vancouver archives
george said for her the study was scientific proof of “what my ancestors and family have been saying for generations.”
she hoped it would serve as a tool “to prove that we know what we’re doing” and ensure greater nation-to-nation consultation moving forward, especially in the face of the current push by provincial and federal governments to fast-track large-scale industrial projects.
“we’ve watched our inlets, our home be devastated for 150 years,” she said. “and it’s all been done without us.
in a statement, the tsleil-waututh chief and council drew a line between the study’s findings and federal bill c-5, which aims to fast-track some large-scale industrial projects, a process the council said “threatens our inherent and constitutionally protected rights.”
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“we have seen the devastating impacts of cumulative effects of colonization and mega projects firsthand: the decrease of the richness of the inlet’s food sources, loss of water quality, threats to wildlife, increased marine shipping and vessel traffic, and more,” the statement said.
“we’re not anti-development,” george added. “but how can you do this better? how can you do this greener? how can we do this so that there’s something left for the future generations?
“we know what we’re doing,” george said. “we’ve known for generations.”
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