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Territoriality, Aboriginal Rights, And The Heiltsuk Spawn-On-Kelp Fishery, Douglas C. Harris

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In 1988, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ("DFO') charged two Heiltsuk brothers with attempting to sell herring spawn-on-kelp without a J-license. In 1989, the Heiltsuk Tribal Council initiated legal action to compel the DFO to issue it additional J-licenses and to recognize Heiltsuk jurisdiction to manage the fishery in their traditional territory on the central coast. An analysis of these cases and of the historical regulation of the herring spawn fisheries reveals a continuing conflict between the state and a First Nation over a fishery and over the legitimacy of increasingly intertwined legal systems. The Heiltsuk defense of their …