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Indigenous Knowledge can be defined as expertise, skills, practices, ideas, experiences and information gained over a long period, sustained and passed on from generation to generation orally within a community in a particular geographic area, often forming part of its culture. The Sundarbans, the largest remaining tract of coastal mangrove wetlands in the world are surrounded by rivers, rivulets, and creeks pushing the islanders to pursue fishing as a source of subsistence. The present paper has sought to understand how the fishing community of the Sundarbans draws upon his repertoire of knowledge and beliefs to cope with the world in which it finds itself. This has required an understanding of not only the Sundarban's natural world, but its geomorphology, hydrology and also the social world--the people, economy, administration, and governance. Using the ethnographic method, this empirical study deals with the fishers' means and measures i.e. beliefs, cognitive elements, and techniques--while often preserving the traditional fabric, have evolved with time. This unique and effective indigenous knowledge needs to be conserved. Documentation of the existing valid indigenous knowledge with fishers' perception as well as scientific rationale will help in adoption and further improvement to fulfil the present need of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human alterations, such as hydropower development, are intensive and have negative impacts on fish and ecological environment. However, fish habitat restoration projects based on geographical morphology have not yet been reported in the Yangtze River. To explore engineering measures used to restore fish habitat structure and function, a mesoscale fish habitat restoration project was designed and constructed, which included restructuring of habitat topography in the fluctuating area. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models were used to simulate and predict the project's effect on the hydromorphology prior to construction, and an Acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) was deployed to test and verify actual flow field improvement. Short-term effects on fish species sorting and their main ecological traits were examined. The results showed that vorticity and flow heterogeneity in the river reach increased, suggesting that the restoration projects created flow conditions favourable to indigenous fishes. Thus, pre-optimization using computer simulation is an essential and scientific procedure that could be used to increase the probability of river restoration success. The promotion of habitat diversity had strong effects on fish aggregation, especially for the rare and endemic fish species targeted. Fish abundance, catch biomass and species richness increased by 98.1%, 62.7% and 22.5%, respectively. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) in species number and catch abundance before and after the project. The number of rare and endemic fish species increased from four to nine species. Overall, this research provides evidence that the promotion of habitat hydraulic morphology heterogeneity accelerates the recovery of fish diversity and biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western epistemologies on race defined blackness and indigeneity through scales of poverty, or more precisely, in frameworks privileging economic deprivation. Indigenous fishing communities are typically constructed as subsistence fishers whose practices only served to exacerbate resource scarcity as a result. I present a case study of the Gullah Geechee, self-defined as culturally indigenous and racially black, to explore how consciousness, indigenous knowledge, and cultural practices allow access to resources that enable them to achieve a level of autonomy. I draw on the livelihoods of three fishers, ranging from familial to commercial, to examine how the power of giving, through the cultural practices of reciprocity, sharing, and cooperation, yield abundances vital to building a sense of community. I suggest that indigenous ontologies offer alternate ways to conceptualize indigeneity in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]