Tsleil-Waututh measure erosion, pollution and overfishing since contact and industrialization in Burrard Inlet

This week Chief Jen, Bones, Gabe George, and Mike George went out on one of the TLR boats for an interview with the Vancouver Sun. The purpose of the interview was to discuss cumulative effects in Burrard Inlet and highlight the incredible work that is being done by Tsleil-Waututh.

Between 1792 and 2020, according to three reports released, Burrard Inlet lost 1,214 hectares of intertidal and subtidal areas to development and erosion. Not for a long time now could one canoe from Burrard Inlet to East Vancouver; Stanley Park long ago quit becoming an island at high tide.

TWN’s way of life is dependent on a healthy Burrard Inlet. We took care of the Inlet and it took care of us.

Read the Vancouver Sun Article here:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/tsleil-waututh-measure-erosion-pollution-and-overfishing-since-contact-and-industrialization-in-burrard-inlet

Review the findings in the reports:

Tsleil-Waututh Nation Research Report

A review of Burrard Inlet water quality data to understand the impacts of contamination on TsleilWaututh Nation’s safe harvesting practices

https://twnsacredtrust.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20220210_Contaminants-impacts-on-TWN_Formatted.pdf

Fisheries Centre Research Reports:

Historical Ecology in Burrard Inlet: Summary of Historic, Oral History, Ethnographic, and Traditional Use Information

https://fisheries.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2022/03/FCRR30-2-CollatedM3b.pdf

Fisheries Centre Research Reports:

Reconstructing the pre-contact shoreline of Burrard Inlet (British Columbia, Canada) to quantify cumulative intertidal and subtidal area change from 1792 to 2020

https://fisheries.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2022/03/M8-FCRR30-1-Collated.pdf

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Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s way of life is dependent on a healthy Burrard Inlet. We take care of the Inlet, and it takes care of us. Over 90% of our food was from the marine environment before Europeans arrived, with clams, herring and salmon being some of our most important food sources. Since European contact, however, development and resource use has degraded the health of the inlet to the point that we can’t harvest clams due to contamination, herring have been largely absent for over a century after a dynamite fishery destroyed populations in the late 1800s, and salmon are collapsing across the coast.

Cedar tree

The sea,
salt water

Mountain

Salmon

Canoe

Tsleil-Waututh measure erosion, pollution and overfishing since contact and industrialization in Burrard Inlet

Tsleil-Waututh measure erosion, pollution and overfishing since contact and industrialization in Burrard Inlet