Gespe’gewaq Mi’gmaq

Resource Council

Elver Project
Community Report
 Acknowledgements

T
he Gespe’gewaq Mi’gmaq Resource Council
would like to thank the Aboriginal Funds for
Species at Risk funding program for their con-
tributions.

We would also like to thank Eel River Bar, Listuguj,

and Pabineau First Nations for their ongoing support.
For those who joined us in our workshop information
sessions, you provided us with insight about the im-
portance of eels in our communities. This confirmed
our belief that we must continue to share our stories,
and to continue supporting those who are sharing their
skills and knowledge with our youth.

Our youth are filled with ambitions and talents and are
so eager to hear our language. Their desire to learn our
traditional ways encourages us to seek their participa-
tion in all that we do. Thank you to all the youth who
demonstrated curiosity and enthusiasm while listening
to our presentations and helping us conduct our field
work. You are our future decision makers, and because
of that, we feel privileged to have worked with you over
the summer.

To our elders, we thank you for insights, understand-

ings, stories, and values. We are continually guided by
your wisdom.

From all of us at GMRC,

Wela’liog.

i Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................ii
Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council .......................................................1
Introduction ...............................................................................................................1
What Do Ga't Look Like? ........................................................................................3
Mi'gmaq Relationship With Ga't .........................................................................6
Fishing..............................................................................................................6
Ga't As Food ...................................................................................................6
Ga't As Medicine...........................................................................................7
Ga't for Tools and Accessories .................................................................7
Ga't During Ceremony ...............................................................................7
Ga't Behavior and Adaptation .............................................................................8
Presence of Elvers in the Restigouche, Eel River,
And Nepisiguit Estuaries.......................................................................................9
Table .................................................................................................................9
Project Successes......................................................................................................12
Learning from other Mi'gmaq Communities .....................................12
Building Community Capacity ................................................................14
Community Engagement and Communication ...............................14
Community Workshops....................................................................... 14
Youth ....................................................................................................... 14
Photonovel ...............................................................................................15
Future Work ................................................................................................................15

Community Report ii
 GMRC
In the fall of 2006, the First Nation communities of
Eel River Bar, Listuguj, and Pabineau came together
to form the Gespe’gewaq Mi’gmaq Resource Council
Inc. (GMRC). GMRC’s purpose is to support sustain-
able resource management and help with the recovery,
maintenance and development of the resources on be-
half of its member communities.

This began a journey that brought the communities

together to improve social and economic conditions
and awareness and communication in the areas of
aquatic and natural resource management.

As Mi’gmaq, our connection to Mother Earth remains

essential to our very existence. It is because of this
special relationship that the Gespe’gewaq Mi’gmaq
Resource Council exists and continues to pursue trad-
itional resource management processes.

Introduction
For thousands of years, the Gespe’gewa’gi Mi’gmaq
have lived in tune with the land. Today, we continue to
share relations with many aspects of the environment.

These relations can be seen through our diet, our tools,

our clothing, and our ceremonies. One particular rela-
tion of interest is with eel, a once abundant traditional
food. Over the years, many traditional foods have re-
mained prominent in our diet; however, we have been
made aware that there has been a decline in the num-
ber of community members who fish eel, or as known
in Mi’gmaq, ga’t. The reasons for this are varied, but
when speaking with community members, their main
reasons for the decline was attributed to environmental

1 Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

 concerns, to changes in diet, and to the fishing tradition
not being passed down. We believe that by bringing
back our relationship with ga’t, not only will we enhance
our well-being, but we can also help enhance the ga’t
population.

It is this history, relationship, and health concern for the

eel that the GMRC took the lead to develop the project
“Estimating Relative Abundance of Juvenile American
Eel (Elvers) in Gespe’gewa’gi”. By estimating the num-
ber of juvenile eels traveling to the region and exam-
ining the Mi’gmaq relationship with eel, we can draw
knowledge from various resource users and research-
ers which will help to reinvigorate a Mi’gmaq way of
living in a modern society while helping to rebuild a
valuable resource for ourselves.

What do ga’t look like?

Ga’t are long, narrow, and can grow to almost 5 feet
long. Older ga’t are usually dark brown or greenish,
with yellowish-white bellies. If you’ve ever encountered
an eel, you would have noticed that they are also cov-
ered with a thick mucous coating that they use to help
protect themselves.

Ga’t are unique because although

their life begins in salt water, they
spend most of their lives in fresh
water, and return to the sea to
breed to start the cycle
all over again.

3 Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

Their life cycle consists of 7 stages:

1. Eggs
2. Leptocephalus
3. Glass eel
4. Elver
5. Yellow eel
6. Silver eel
7. Spawning

They emerge from their egg in the

Sargasso Sea as leptocephalus and
begin to drift in the ocean currents
resembling very thin-like transparent
ribbons. It can take about a year be-
fore these tiny eel larvae reach the
coast of Mi’gma’gi where they transi-
tion from glass eels into what we have
been busy monitoring in the summer,
elvers.

The elvers that we encountered entering the fresh-

water in Eel River Bar and Pabineau were all about
10 cm’s long. Most of these elvers would be making
their way upstream into rivers and smaller streams but
some also stay in bays and mouths of rivers where the
water is brackish (part salt/part fresh). It will be at least
three years before they mature into adulthood, living
up to 20 years in fresh water before they return to the
Sargasso Sea.

Community Report 4
5
Mi’gmaq Relationship
with ga’t
There is no question that ga’t was an extremely import-
ant being for our people, taking care of us both spiritu-
ally and physically. It continues to amaze me how re-
sourceful our ancestors were. One would hardly think
just by looking at an eel that it contributed so much
to our lives. But it’s true, our ancestors, parents, and
grandparents all knew very well the value of our rela-
tionship with ga’t.

Fishing
What we learned from our elders was that ga’t was
fished and enjoyed all year round. Fishermen used a
few different tools but the most common, as described
to us by an elder, was the use of spears. There were
two different types of spears, he explained, a winter
one and a summer one. You could tell which one was
which by the number of spikes that it had. During the
summer, when you could see the eel swimming free-
ly in the water, he would use a spear that had 2 to 3
spikes that would be used for more accurate spearing.
During the winter, he would use a spear with multiple
spikes that were placed more closely together. This, he
said, was because in the winter, ga’t are hiding within
the mud and he would need multiple spikes to make
sure he could capture and haul the eel out of the mud
and back up through the ice.

Ga’t as food
The elder pleasantly recalls his mom preparing the eel
in chunks and having it baked as well as boiled in a
stew. It was a meal that brought the family together
after a day of playing outdoors he said.
 Ga’t as medicine
We also learned that g’at was an important source of
medicine. Ever sprain your ankle or have to bandage
your wrist? Well, it was once a common practice to bind
sprains and other injuries. Eel skin was also used re-
duce swelling. The eel skin would be wrapped around
a joint, like a knee, and as it shrank it would help heal
the injury. We also recently learned at a conference
that oil that is left from cooking eel was once used as
eardrops to help with earaches.

G’at for tools and accessories

In addition to food and medicine, eel and eel skin was
used for many other purposes. For example, a piece
of eel skin was often used to tie hair, and because of
its durability and tightening ability, it was often used to
bind sleds, moccasins, clothing, etc.

Ga’t during ceremony

G’at was also a part of ceremony to give thanks, as

“
described below:

When darkness has settled, food is put out into

the night preferably on an old stump or near a
tree and offered to the spirits. In days gone by,
eel skins and fish heads were offered. An elder
would lead the family to a stump, give thanks
for surviving thus far and ask for additional as-
sistance until spring’ (Marshall 1997).
source: Paqtnkek Fish and Wildlife Commission, 2002

7 Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

Ga’t behaviour and
adaptation
Ga’t is a very mysterious fish. To this day, we are
amazed at its capabilities and astonishing antics. In
the water, as they move upstream, they often have to
navigate around obstacles; climbing over rocks, dams,
and even waterfalls. In Eel River Bar, we were told that
the elvers could sometimes be seen climbing up the
fish passage of the dam. And in Pabineau, we were
told that eels could be seen swimming up the Pabineau
Falls.

Our elders have been observing ga’t for the majority of

their lives and have learned that they are most active at
night, making this the best time to go eel fishing. Dur-
ing the day, they said they can be found laying buried in
mud or gravel. They also hide under logs or boulders,
below undercut banks, or in dense vegetation.

We are often asked what eels eat. This is a rather dif-

ficult question to answer as eel are not picky eaters.
Their diet includes a variety of small fish, shrimps,
crayfish, aquatic insect larvae, snails, mussels, aquatic
worms, frogs, toads, and salamanders. Ga’t will also
eat decaying matter that fall into the water.

Ga’t are also adaptable in and out of the water. There

have been incidences in the lab where eels were seen
jumping straight up out of a bucket and even escaping
from a tightly wound bag. The fact that they have the
ability to absorb oxygen through their skins to breathe
allows them to survive out of water for several hours.

Community Report
 Presence of elvers in the Restigouche, Eel
River, and Nepisiguit estuaries
Understanding our relationship with ga’t, its lifecycle,
and its habitat needs will ultimately lay the groundwork
for future work directed at protecting and enhancing
ga’t and all it provides for us.

This is the first year that an opportunity to investigate

elvers (juvenile eel) was available for our communities.
As such, the results we find will be used as a starting
point, with the expectation to conduct future monitoring
work in the coming years.

We began making elver traps in May and June, and

checked our first trap on July 6th, 2009. We were
very excited when we saw our first elver in Eel River
Bar! From that day on, we caught a total of 42 elvers
throughout the summer. It was quite the experience
checking traps, anticipating how many elvers we would
catch that day.

We chose the best sites possible, combining recom-

mendations from our elders and fishers as well as sci-
entific information found from other research papers.
Because there was such a variety of habitat prefer-
ence, we tried a few different habitats; some in slow
moving waters, some in fast moving waters, some in
salty and others in fresh waters.

Presence of elvers in the Restigouche, Eel River, and Pabineau water systems.

Salinity Temp.
Elvers pH (avg.) D.O. (avg.)
(ppt) (avg.)
Eel River Bar 29 8.36 8.11 mg/L 0.45 20.0 C

Pabineau 13 7.79 9.85 mg/L 0.0 19.8 C

\
Listuguj 0 8.6 11.15 mg/L 0.1 11.9 C

9 Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

Twenty-nine (29) were found in the Eel River Bar area
and 13 were found in Pabineau. No elvers were found
at Listuguj. We also noticed that the elvers found in
Pabineau were much larger and stronger compared to
the elvers found in Eel River Bar.

It is difficult to conclude the reasons why elvers were

present in some rivers and not others. Some conditions
we will look at in the future is whether water temper-
ature, available oxygen, and pH of the water play a role
in habitat preference. We look forward to observing the
biological and physical conditions that influence elver
survival and distribution in our fresh water systems.

A 2004 study by Peter W. Sorensen, conducted at

the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of
Oceanography, looked at substances that attracted
elvers in freshwater systems. The researchers tested
the elvers’ responses to different plants, animals, and
inanimate objects such as rock collected from a Rhode
Island (U.S.A.) brook with a fairly large elver run.

Many items were attractive, and several were repul-

sive, suggesting that elvers are receptive to a variety
of odors. The odor of decaying leaves was highly at-
tractive as were odors of the surfaces of aquatic plants,
submerged stones, and other migrating fish. Because
leaves only became attractive when combined with
stream water, microorganisms responsible for decom-
position are thought to be a valuable attractant in the
freshwater ecosystem. It was suggested that their odor
could serve as a possible index of environmental suit-
ability for migrating eels.

In the marine water system, we learned that some

researchers believe that a possible weakening of the
Gulf Stream interfered with larval transport, causing
declines in elver abundance in the entire Gulf of St.
Lawrence region.

Community Report 10
We would like to look into this further and to bring the
results back to the community to get your thoughts,
theories, and understandings of what makes certain
rivers and streams more attractive for migrating elvers.
Your knowledge is essential in helping to bring back
our traditions, and to continue a sustainable relation-
ship with the lands resources.

Project Successes
There are many factors that contributed to the success
of the project. GMRC is proud to recognize that our
activities, resources and support were based on the
strengths, skills and abilities of our people and as well
as from other Mi’gmaq organizations. All those involved
took effective action and played leading roles in the de-
velopment of this work.

Learning from other Mi’gmaq organizations

GMRC’s Environmental Manager and Research Asso-

ciate traveled to the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Re-
sources in Eskasoni, Nova Scotia to receive training on
how to monitor elvers.

The training allowed the team to get hands-on experi-

ence and to learn about what to expect in the field.
They learned quite a bit about how to build traps, how
and where to place them, how to handle elvers, and
what habitat conditions were most favourable.

We hope to continue this great relationship so that we

can continue to exchange valuable information about
ga’t and other resources.

Community Report 12
Building Community Capacity

We also had the privilege of working with 3 Listuguj

youth who worked directly with the project and who
acted as responsible stewards of the environment.
They included Daniel Mitchel, Samson Barnaby, and
Misty Barnaby. Their volunteer and support made the
project that much stronger.

Community Engagement and Communication

Our direction is continually guided by the desires of you;

our community members. By learning what you know,
and listening to your desires, our products and service
will continually improve to meet your needs. We take
pride in listening, learning, and responding.

Community workshops

The community workshops and information sessions

allowed us to inform you about the elver research pro-
ject and to hear your stories about ga’t.

The presentations provided technical information on

ga’t including: characteristics, terminology, where they
are found, how far they travel, and life history. Then
came an opportunity to learn why GMRC was studying
elvers, including the goals and objectives of the pro-
ject, what kind of data collection we conducted, as well
as what kind of information the community wished to
share.

Youth

GMRC had the opportunity to spend time with students

from LMDC’s ECO program. The students went into
the field and had the opportunity to visit one of the elver
project sites at Eel River Bar, and get a hands-on ex-
perience. They were shown how to collect data such
as; pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and depth.

Community Report 14
 The students also measured and observed the elvers.
On November 4, and December 2, 2009, students also
came from the Alaqsite’w Gitpu School to learn more
about GMRC. We showed the students a short intro-
duction video on GMRC and then did a short presenta-
tion on what research projects GMRC is doing, includ-
ing the elver monitoring project.

Photonovel

During the early stages of the project Janine Metallic,

a PhD candidate in Educational Studies at McGill, was
asked to share some of her knowledge on research
methods relating to Indigenous ways of knowing. One
of the ideas she presented to the staff was the use of a
photonovel as a unique way of telling stories and shar-
ing information. Photonovels are like comic books, but
pictures of real people in real settings are used along
with caption bubbles and text.

While the AGS students were here, they received a

sneak peak of the elver photonovel, and have been
sharing it with their families, giving it positive reviews,
and getting their seal of approval.

Future work
Our future work consists of continuing to build an in-
ventory of migrating elvers, and expanding our under-
standing of ga’t by looking into its dietary habits, its
relationship with other species, and its relationship with
the Mi’gmaq way of life.

This comprehensive approach will help build the foun-

dation for sustainable resource management process-
es for ga’t that is also relevant to our values and per-
spectives as Mi’gmaq.

15 Gespe'gewaq Mi'gmaq Resource Council

Such an approach recognizes that all ecosystems are
interdependent, and that changes to one ecosystem
can impact another.

We look forward to more work involving our traditional

foods and traditional ways of learning.

Community Report 16
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