“Nature provides the answer”
I was riding in the passenger seat of Jackie Hildering’s pickup as we drove from Port McNeill to Telegraph Cove, when she said this to me in the course of conversation. I asked her if I could quote her on it.
We were talking about diving off the east coast of Vancouver Island, one of Jackie’s passions, along with studying the humpback whale population in the area, a host of other ecological issues, and driving change in the way we prioritize the needs of the environment in our lives, even the way we view ourselves and our happiness, through education and increased understanding.
The kelp, as well as being a friend to the environment by providing a safe nursery for many species and by being a highly effective carbon sink, is a friend to the diver in a more basic way, providing something secure enough to hang on to in a strong current.
We were talking about diving but we might as well have been talking about anything else, so heartfelt is Jackie’s belief that the world would be a better place, and we would all be much happier in it, if we looked to nature for solutions much more and relied on consumerism for self affirmation much less.
She is not a wide-eyed idealist by any means. She knows and empathizes with people who rely on the local resource based industries. She joked that she “slept with a logger” for a time in her life.
Jackie believes since we are all a part of nature it makes sense for us all want a future where everyone, including those who make a living from resource based industries, stand to benefit from it for much longer. And by longer she means for generations to come.
During our conversation about sea otters she said she was open to the idea of a sea otter watching eco tourism industry elsewhere in BC if their numbers continue to bounce back, and in this area if it happens here. At every turn she was enthusiastic to emphasize the need for us to to find “common solutions to common problems” and get away from a polarized conservationist vs. resource user mindset – noting that while we should view a rebounding sea otter population as a good thing in general it does bring new problems with it. Sea otters need to eat a lot of food in order to maintain their metabolism, which puts them in direct competition with humans.
I felt like I found a kindred spirit in Jackie in many ways. Her stubborn commitment to not let her idealism get in the way of her pragmatism and vice versa – to hold the requirement for a sustainable future for humans as well as the rest of the natural world in her mind at the same time without letting go of her belief in the importance of either one – resonated strongly with me and what I am endeavouring to do with Sealives.
Jackie is a lifetime ahead of me in understanding the issues however. She has devoted her life to the study of the ocean and to educating others about it and we could have gone into much more detail on many subjects.
She, like many
Regarding salmon farming, she is supportive of land based farming and has worked as the Communications Director and Community Liaison for Canada’s first land-based salmon farm owned by the ’Namgis First Nation – an example of her solutions based philosophy.
We also talked about the local sea urchin harvesting economy, a lucrative if physically demanding industry that she sees as relatively benign given that it helps keep kelp damaging sea urchins under control. Its not a big positive impact by any means, the kelp needs more help in the shape of a rebound in sea urchin eating species – sea otters and sea stars in particular – but its good to hear about a resource based business that is at least somewhat on the right side of things.
All the same, I couldn’t resist returning to the broader theme of driving positive change on ecological issues in society and so this is what we talked mostly about, and I find her views fascinating and insightful.
Jackie’s view is that our own ideas of self, based upon a misguided value set pummelled into us by a consumerist society creates a kind of paralysis in us all. That if you see yourself as a “resource user” there is natural tendency to allow that to get in the way of making the everyday changes you can make because it threatens your sense of who you are in the world. In other words the danger is one of falling into a kind of ecological identity crisis.
We resist change because our identity is tied to things that we have been taught are important by society and we continue to do make decisions that we know are damaging not because of the actual effect the changes may have on our lives, but in order to protect our sense of self.
Her suggested way out of it? Break the cycle.
We all have things in our life that are there by necessity and are not optimal from an environmental standpoint. Jackie’s point is that we should not let the things we can or can’t change define us, we should just make the positive changes we can make without delay.
We didn’t completely agree on everything. Jackie is highly skeptical of our current system to find answers for the problems that it itself has caused, and puts more faith in change resulting from individuals, through their consumer and voter choices. For now I remain someone who has some confidence in our system to provide large scale solutions to large scale ecological challenges, and that given a full and correct understanding of the problems solutions will be found, by people who look to nature for inspiration, but by people for people nonetheless.
But, I am here because I can no longer deny that our current way of doing things hasn’t allowed us to move fast enough to make enough of the right kind of changes within a timeframe that will leave us with anything close to the kind of global ecosystem we should be living in.
And in the same way that I have moved away from thinking that its ok for individuals to content themselves with the idea that we are all in the swim of history, and on balance we – society, the world – are moving in generally the right direction, I am increasingly of the opinion that real momentum must in large part be driven from the ground up if we are to gain enough of it quickly enough.
Jackie has been in the trenches of this struggle for much of her life. She has thought a lot about what drives this stuff and she is an eloquent speaker on the subject. I am very much looking forward to talking with her more as Sealives develops.
Did You Know
Sea otters were super-abundant on Canada’s West Coast before the fur trade all but wiped them out in the 17th and 18th centuries. They have since made a return.
There is no universally agreed upon cause of Sea Star Wasting Disease, but it is strongly correlated to higher water temperatures, potentially due to global warming.
Sea urchins are harvested in many areas along Canada’s West Coast. While urchins can be destructive to kelp there is not always a direct positive correlation between urchin harvesting and kelp conservation. Urchin harvesting boats can damage kelp if they attempt to harvest in kelp beds, and urchins that live in kelp beds are not always attractive to harvest.
Environmental Impacts
Kelp is positive to the environment in a multitude of ways, as a carbon sink and a nursery to many important species. It is also a home to a multitude of invertebrate species that support the marine habitat and birds. It is a keystone species and loss of kelp has a significant impact on the environment.
Ecotoursim represents a socio-economic and environmental trade-off. There are negative impacts via increased marine traffic, vessel noise, increased risk of boat-strike and less severe but still harmful impacts on the observed species natural behavior. Positive impacts include providing alternative economic opportunities for people who might otherwise find that they need to find work in other more harmful industries, opportunities to educate the wider public on charismatic species and the connected environmental issues and opportunities for data collection and citizen science.
Health Impacts
Including fish as part of your diet has well-recorded health benefits although care should be taken as some varieties are high in toxins as a result of pollution in the environment. Wild salmon is generally regarded to be healthier than farmed salmon due to a lower risk of PCB contamination.
Lessons Learned
Don’t let preconceived notions of identity and fear of letting go of activities that you currently identify with prevent you from making the positive changes that are possible today.
What You Can Do
Don’t seek total change in your life overnight. Change the things you can change, let go of the things you can let go of and seek improvements in the things that you can’t change or let go of.
Support ecotourism operators who have a policy of observing animals (marine or otherwise) in such a way that their behavior is not impacted in any way and take the trouble to educate their guests on the ecological issues impacting the area in which they operate. Make yourself acquainted with laws and guidelines regarding vessel proximity to marine mammals and other charismatic species – observe them yourself and insist that others do the same.
Understand whether the salmon you are buying is wild or farmed and educate yourself on the health risks and benefits of both. Seriously consider the environmental impact of open-pen salmon farms before buying farmed salmon.