The Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia, Canada, have launched a rights-based “Moderate Livelihood” fishery in St. Mary’s Bay, which has sparked outrage and protests from non-Indigenous fishermen.

Sipekne’katik band is the first to start this type of moderate livelihood fishery. The Mi’kmaw (also spelled Mi’kmaq) band has the constitutional right to fish for a moderate livelihood, as enshrined in treaties and upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1999 Marshall Decision.

The Marshall Decision resolved a dispute over whether an Indigenous man possessed treaty rights to catch and sell fish without a license and in violation of federal fishery regulations. The treaty rights at issue in that decision were the 1760-61 Peace and Friendship Treaties between the British authorities and the Mi’kmaw which were interpreted to mean a treaty right to trade for necessities, not for economic gain. The court in the Marshall Decision determined that “[c]atch limits that could reasonably be expected to produce a moderate livelihood for individual Mi’kmaq families at present-day standards can be established by regulation and enforced without violating the treaty right.”

The term “moderate livelihood” as used by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Marshall Decision has never been defined, but the concept is supposed to enable the Mi’kmaw to make a living off of natural resources. In a clarification from the Supreme Court, known as Marshall 2, the court determined that the federal government could regulate Mi’kmaw fishers, but only if there were justifiable concerns about conservation and consultation with the First Nations groups.

At the launch of the fishery on September 16, non-Indigenous fishermen attempted to intimidate the Sipekne’katik fishermen by using their boats to block them and steaming towards them. Fewer than 10 fishing licenses, each for 50 traps, were issued to Mi’kmaw fishermen under the moderate livelihood fishery.

On Saturday Mi’kmaw Senators issued a statement calling for the Canadian federal government to respect their treaty right to moderate livelihood fishing, and on Monday the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs met with Ministers Jordan and Bennet. In the week since the launch, non-Indigenous Acadian commercial fish harvesters have continued to protest the fishery, claiming that it is being used “as a cloak for a large-scale commercial fishery.”