To bring back endangered fish, this First Nation is claiming environmental management authority
Over 20 years ago, the Bella Coola River—located in southern British Columbia and central to the traditional territory of the Nuxalk Nation—saw its last healthy run of eulachon before populations dramatically crashed in 1999. A sovereign Indigenous or First Nation within what is known as Canada, Nuxalk people have maintained a strong relationship with the eulachon since time immemorial. Known as sputc in the Nuxalk language, spawning populations in the Bella Coola remain a fraction of their historical size, but recent years have seen greater numbers of fish entering the river as winter turns to spring and the fish make their migration. Now, the Nuxalk Nation is leveraging the case of eulachon to strengthen its own environmental management authority, with the hopes that one day the fish will return home.