Human History

European and American immigration to Clayoquot Sound began in the late 19^th century, but this region has been home to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Three First Nations reside in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve, which are all a part of the nuučaanułatḥ (Nuu-chah-nulth) or Nootka nations along the west coast of Vancouver Island. They are the hišqʷiʔatḥ (Hesquiaht) to the northwest, the in the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht or Clayoquot) to the southeast, and the ayahuasca (Ahousaht) in between.

The people of Clayoquot Sound have long relied on its abundant resources for survival. Thick, red cedar trees were carefully chosen to make canoes and totems. The whale hunt was a highly-anticipated tradition that required months of spiritual preparation, after which grey whales would be hunted for their meat, bones, and blubber. And of course, the salmon of the Pacific Northwest have always been an important food staple.

The Nuu-chah-nulth people had a sophisticated environmental management system that allowed them to preserve the natural abundance and beauty of Clayoquot Sound long before the Canadian government was involved. Two guiding principles summarize the Nuu-chah-nulth approach to traditional resource management. Hishuk ish ts’awalk, or “everything is one” denotes the importance of and need to respect all forms of life. H a h uulhi is the system of hereditary management of traditional territories, which often followed natural watershed boundaries. For example, there were equivalents to fishery managers. Families would be designated to oversee specific sets of streams, educating their children so the responsibility could be passed down. It is important that such traditional ecological knowledge is included in the present study and management of Clayoquot Sound.

Early explorers were increasingly drawn to the Pacific Northwest in the late 18th century due to a combination of factors, including foreign governments’ competition for territory, the search for trade routes like the Northwest Passage, and trading opportunities. The English explorer James Cook (1778) surveyed Nootka Sound (just above Clayoquot Sound) during his voyage up the western coast of North America, and traded with the Nootka people for sea-otter pelts and other items. His published journals helped popularize the area, especially his mention of sea otters and the potential for trade. James Hanna (1787) and John Meares (1788) are two other English sea-otter fur traders who arrived during this time.

The Spanish government, wanting to strengthen their hold on the west coast and continue seeking out ideal areas for settlement and trade, sent out a fresh fleet of ships in 1789. During some of the Spanish expeditions, several weeks were spent in Clayoquot Sound, particularly those expeditions led by Manuel Quimper and Francisco de Eliza during June 1790 and May 1791, respectively. Many other explorers can be credited with the continued “discovery” and mapping of the region, including José María Narváez and Juan Carrasco.

Though hostility towards visiting ships like the Tonquin (1811) would discourage interaction for a long time after, English, Japanese, Chinese and Norweigan settlers began arriving in the 1890s. Many were drawn to the area for its economic opportunities. These included mining and prospecting, fur trading, logging, fishing and aquaculture, and pre-empting, a practice whereby settlers would be given a parcel of land and agree to “improve” it in some way. However, many of these pre-emptors made only marginal improvements to their land, preferring to spend their time in more lucrative occupations. While steamship docks in Victoria established links to the area early on, a dock installed in Tofino in 1908 helped put Clayoquot Sound on the map. Logging roads from Alberni that were completed after World War II also made it more accessible.

With settlement came government, and unfortunately, with government came the mistreatment and annexation of the indigenous population. Settlers had already brought diseases that had killed many Nuu-chah-Nulth people. Now they were killing their way of life and denying their rights through legislation. First Nations people were moved to reserves, while their children were sent to schools that abused them and attempted to integrate them into Canadian society by erasing their culture. Under the Indian Act, they were forcefully assimilated so they could be enfranchised as Canadian citizens. This act granted far-reaching powers to the head of Indian Affairs to determine an indigenous person’s “band” or “Indian status,” such as determining whether a recent widow was “fit” to keep her own children. The Indian Act also lumped together disparate peoples and destroyed community traditions like the potlatch. By 1914, Nuu-chah-Nulth people were being arrested for doing daily activities like fishing outside of reserve boundaries.

The “War in the Woods” of the 1980s and 90s was an event where the Nuu-chah-Nulth were able to exercise their rights and take back a little bit of that power. Incidentally, it’s also something Clayoquot Sound is well known for, as it was one of the first large-scale acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The “War in the Woods” was a series of protests against clear-cutting in Clayoquot Sound, coming to a head when MacMillan Blodel attempted to log on Meares Island. This led to peaceful blockades, protests, and over 800 arrests. Fortunately, the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations were able to lobby and exercise their treaty rights to halt production. This led to several positive consequences, both immediate and eventual, such as the Interim Measures Act, establishing a system co-management with First Nations. Additionally, the two logging companies now operating in Clayoquot Sound are Nuu-Chah-Nulth owned.

Another ripple effect of this event was the designation of Clayoquot Sound as a biosphere reserve. The management of this beautiful place is a collaboration between indigenous and non-indigenous people and entities. You can find out more about what it means for Clayoquot Sound to be a biosphere reserve through the resources below

Clayoquot Biosphere Trust: https://clayoquotbiosphere.org/

Clayoquot Sound|Striking Balance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6StWqPVEfw&t=484s

For a comprehensive timeline of Clayoquot Sound history, please see Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History by Margaret Horsfield and Ian Kennedy, a book that is available for preview online

Fishing and Aquaculture

Clayoquot Sound before the 1990’s was a small logging and fishing area. According to one of the former Tofino mayors Scott Fraser “Tofino used to pretty much shut down in the winter months. Those people who came here with lots of rain gear to walk in 50-mile-an-hour winds used to be considered kooks” (Cernitage 1997). During the mid-90’s environmentalists and First Nation’s fought with loggers over the fate of one of the last major strands of virgin rain forest on the West Coast (Cernitage 1997). In, January 2000 Clayoquot Sound became designated as the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, meaning that limited logging and development would still be allowed as long as it doesn’t affect the ecological integrity of the area.

Today Clayoquot Sound’s main source of income is tourism. Tofino’s tourism industry generates $240 million of economic impact. Tourism supports 2,670 direct jobs—1,720 full-time equivalent jobs—generating $60 million in annual wages (Gislason 2017). Following tourism comes fishing, recreational fishing in British Columbia generates $713 million revenue and $246 million in labor income (Gislason 2017) and commercial fishing generates $324 million revenue and $112 million in labor income (Gislason 2017).

Fish like salmon are considered key stone species, they hold together the habit bringing in a number of nutrients for the forest, rivers, oceans, wild life and humans. The First Nations see the salmon as the life-sustaining centerpiece of their culture because of their customs and traditions that date back at least a millennium. In response to the decreasing numbers of sea food because of overfishing and other anthropogenic factors people have turned to aquaculture, which is one of the fastest growing food-producing sectors, supplying approximately 40% of the world's fish food (Cole et al. 2009). The problem is that aquaculture brings a number of issues affecting the natural habitat of species causing environmental degradation. Farmed fish have much higher body burden of natural and man-made toxic substances, e.g. antibiotics, pesticides, and persistent organic pollutants, than wild fish (Cole et al. 2009). Scale samples from 14 out of 15 farms in Clayoquot sound tested positive for the piscine orthoreovirus, a disease that gained notoriety after a video of bloody discharge from packing plants in Tofino and Campbell River went viral in December 2017. Aquaculture in Clayoquot Sound has a number of issues with sea lice, piscine orthoreovirus degrading the water quality and habitat. Another problem is the escapement of fish and the dilution of DNA sequence for the native sea life in that area. We need to come up with a better way to sustain our habitat that doesn’t cause more ecosystem problems.