A Bio-Economic Analysis of the Liberian Coastal Fisheries

Many coastal fisheries are subject to harvesting externalities due to inadequate regulations compounded by limited enforcement. Coastal fisheries in Liberia consist of a fleet of dugout canoes (Kru) primarily targeting demersal finfish, larger open wooden boats propelled with outboard engines targeting small inshore pelagics (Fanti), and a small number of industrial trawlers employing midwater and bottom trawls targeting finfish and shrimp. This paper develops a bio-economic model for the coastal fisheries in Liberia and employs the model to identify economic optimal fishing effort and harvesting trajectories for the different coastal fleets. The results show under harvesting and disinvestments in the coastal fisheries in Liberia. In 2010 the Government of Liberia declared a six nautical mile inshore exclusion zone accessible only to small-scale fisheries (SSF), which was accompanied by increased enforcement. The coastal fleets in 2016 were profitable but the distribution of profits was tilted to the small-scale fleets. The government needs to evaluate what policy options are available to fully utilize the fisheries potential for different species complexes while at the same time reduce the risk of conflict and overharvesting. There appears to be a need for investment in new technologies, which can only take place if fishing in Liberia will remain profitable.

Schop, spade of stuurriem? Een bijzondere vondst uit Ezinge

Shovel, spade or side rudder? A special find from Ezinge. In 1933, excavations in the terp of Ezinge (province of Groningen) uncovered an object made out of oak in a house dating from the beginning of the 5th century BC. The object was recorded as a wooden shovel. Its asymmetrical shape, in combination with its lack of handle and its perforated shaft, however, suggest that it may not be a shovel (or a spade), although the possibility cannot be ruled out altogether. The shape of the object seems suitable for use as a side rudder, used to steer a long, dugout canoe powered by multiple paddlers. The earliest side rudders reported in the literature from northwestern Europe are from the late Roman period in southern Scandinavia. If the object could be proven to be a side rudder, it would be a rare find. It would also be one of a very small number of finds that can be associated with boats in the maritime landscape where Ezinge was situated. We recommend experimental research to better understand the use of dugout canoes and side rudders, and to reassess similar objects that have been recorded as shovels or spades.

Canoe Caching at Transit Points

This chapter by Julia B. Duggins examines one of the most frequently asked questions that followed the discovery of over 100 ancient dugout canoes in Newnans Lake (Lake Pithlachocco) near Gainesville, Florida: why so many canoes in one place? Duggins analyzes ethnographic data in this exploration of how canoes may have been kept at intersections between major watersheds, facilitating canoe travel throughout the Florida peninsula.

Iconography and Wetsite Archaeology of Florida's Watery Realms

Frank Hamilton Cushing’s 1896 excavations at Key Marco revealed astonishing carved and painted wooden artifacts rarely seen by archaeologists. Those following in Cushing’s footsteps have assembled a corpus of aesthetic objects from Florida, often in perishable materials. These range from an embarrassing number of dugout canoes, to the wooden animal carvings of Fort Center’s mortuary pond and the owl totem of Hontoon Island. Connections to neighboring areas have been sought with some success; in general, however, the diversity of imagery often makes comparison a challenge. The chapters in this book explore new discoveries and revisit existing museum collections, asking new questions or employing innovative analytical techniques. Cushing concluded his slim Key Marco report with the surmise that the boundless life of the sea provided the energetic impulse behind the artworks that he uncovered. While we might reach a different conclusion today, it is clear that ancient Florida is difficult to comfortably place within the Southeast or Caribbean and that much of that difficulty arises from the iconography born of Florida’s watery landscapes.

Prologue

This introductory chapter discusses the book's origins and the authors' research experiences in Plymouth, Utah, and Kansas City. It also introduces the concept of mobility in Wampanoag culture and history, noting that Wampanoag people have long travelled and made connections in surprising ways and places - historically on whaling ships and more recently on mishoonash (dugout canoes) journeys. This section then discusses contemporary debates over the removal of monuments erected during the Jim Crow era, while also widening this debate to include monuments to settler colonialism.

Protesting the “Perfect City”

This chapter follows Native and Euro-American communities in eastern Massachusetts through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, examining a series of commemorations and counterprotests that unfolded in urbanizing areas and related sites. It analyzes how Bostonians’ conceptions of the city and modernity tended to exclude Native peoples from both, instead relegating them to the past—despite the presence of numerous “Urban Indians” in the growing metropolis, who were seeking employment and social opportunities. It considers a series of pageants and historical markers erected across the Commonwealth, as well as Native pushback against dominant Euro-American narratives about history, such as a 1970 gathering in Patuxet/Plymouth, Massachusetts that foregrounded Indigenous perspectives and inaugurated an annual National Day of Mourning. The chapter also details how tribal communities challenged plans to build a sewage treatment plant on Deer Island, on grounds considered intensely sensitive for their ties to the incarcerations of King Philip’s War. Finally, it illuminates a recent series of memorial journeys along the Charles River and Boston Harbor Islands in which mishoonash (Native dugout canoes) have played important roles in reconnecting Native descendants to the landscapes of ancestors, as well as providing avenues for Indigenous solidarities into the future.