Call for Abstracts

The call for abstracts is closed.

For more about the symposium background and goals, please see the fishing people of the north's symposium information page.

Human-Environment Relationships

This theme explores human relationships with marine and freshwater ecosystems including human adaptation to environmental changes, and social and economic conflicts that may result from climate change. Specific topics may include: current and historical human responses to climate change; climate change impacts to northern ecosystems and peoples; exploration of potential shifts brought about by large-scale fisheries moving north, increased development of living and nonliving marine resources, spill events and related disasters, and newly opening shipping routes; cultural models of the changing marine environment; and appropriate human relationships with marine and freshwater resources.

Fishing Communities in Transition

Global drivers of environmental, economic, and cultural change currently influence unprecedented socioeconomic transitions in fishing communities the world over. Northern fishers often struggle to employ adaptive strategies to environmental or ecological change because of challenges they face in diversifying their livelihoods. We see how reliance on a few key commercial fisheries results in inflexibility and stock depletion and how globalization of fish markets and processing sectors link fishing community health to large-scale trends in price and labor. We also see seafood branding and advancements in gourmet marketing and aquaculture, as well as oil, gas, and mineral development, introduce new opportunities and constraints for coastal communities historically dependent on fisheries. In disparate contexts and geographies, rural coastal communities are facing issues of depopulation, particularly the outmigration of women and youth. Panels and papers proposed under this theme will explore these transitions across the North, paying special attention to the ways in which northern peoples and communities are responding to these economic, social, cultural, and demographic shifts.

Indigenous and Rural Knowledge and Communities

Indigenous communities around the north have an ancient and intimate relationship with their marine and freshwater territories. We encourage submissions that document the ways in which Indigenous and Rural Knowledge can lead and inform contemporary resource management, and submissions that explore the complexities of indigenous experiences as maritime and riverine peoples in past and present fisheries.

Governance and Management Issues in the North

This panel will explore several key questions of arctic governance and management from local to global scales. Are the institutions and management structures currently applied to the living marine resources of the arctic and subarctic seas anticipatory of and resilient to the changes that are expected to take place? Will these institutions respond reactively (e.g., to a species depletion) or proactively (e.g., to provide protections to habitat in anticipation of shifts in the range of species or their exploiters)? If current policy is not anticipatory of change or if current institutions are not resilient to change, how might the governance structures and institutions be changed to better anticipate and accommodate changes?

Abstracts must include:

  1. Type of presentation preferred (oral or poster).
  2. Title, in upper/lowercase type, using as few words as possible.
  3. Author(s) names as they should appear in the abstract book; full affiliation and mailing address; and phone, and email address. Use superscript style.
  4. Name of presenter and contact person if different from first author.
  5. Text of abstract in 250 words or less; do not include any headings, tables, figures or references. If paragraphs in your abstract are particularly long, please break them up into smaller paragraphs of 170 words or less, especially if you use the online submission form.