Fishing amongst industrial ghosts

The challenges of green sea urchin diversification in Eastern Canada

Abstract

This article examines the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk's green sea urchin fishery to explore the long-term implications of diversification strategies in response to ecological and economic precarities in the Canadian fishing industry. Framing diversification as a creative practice developed by commercial fishermen to navigate these vulnerabilities, it highlights how institutional frameworks shape and constrain such efforts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Eastern Quebec during the summer of 2021, the article focuses on the specific regulatory context in which this initiative unfolds. Unlike some other First Nations in Canada, the Wolastoqiyik fishery remains closely tied to the models and oversight of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). An ethnographic analysis of the fishery's sociomaterial entanglements reveals both the promise and the limitations of diversification. Grounded in political ecology, the article argues that while expanding into emerging species may offer short-term relief, it cannot constitute a viable long-term response to the structural dimensions of the current ecological crisis. This calls for more transformative approaches to fisheries governance—approaches that challenge inherited management systems and engage with an era increasingly defined by socio-ecological unpredictability.