Our community-driven project, the Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, started in August 2010, as a collaboration between the Wek’èezhìı Renewable Resources Board, the Tłı̨chǫ Government and the Wek’èezhìı Land and Water Board. Water quality and fish health are of concern to the Tłı̨chǫ people. Development and climate change are two potential threats to the fish resources that have sustained Tłı̨chǫ for generations. Working together, Tłı̨chǫ communities and scientists are collecting baseline information on fish and fish habitat to compare any future changes to, and developing a way to monitor fish that builds on both traditional Tłı̨chǫ knowledge and science.
Each summer the project rotates to a different Tłı̨chǫ community, and information is exchanged between elders, fishers, youth and scientists. Participants share Tłı̨chǫ perspectives on assessing ecosystem health and take part in hands-on scientific monitoring activities such as collecting fish tissues and water and sediment samples for analysis.
The importance of this project for Tłı̨chǫ communities is that it is building the capacity to identify changes to important fish resources in the future.
View videos on the Tłı̨chǫ fish monitoring camps here
The TAEMP program has developed a field guide to Common Fish in the Tłı̨chǫ Region. The guide has anatomical information on fish in both Tłı̨chǫ language and English, and describes each fish species' ecology and use. The most recent (2016) addition has added photos and descriptions of fish habitat in Wek’èezhìı near each of the Tłı̨chǫ communities: Marian Lake, Lac la Martre, Rae Lakes and Snare Lake.
Download Fish Guides:
Download Reports:
FINAL REPORT - Behchoko Fisheries Monitoring and Education Program 2010
FINAL REPORT - Ihdak'eti Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Project 2011
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Wekweètì 2012
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Gamètì 2013
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Whatì 2014
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Behchokǫ̀ 2015
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Wekweètì 2016
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Gamètì 2017
FINAL REPORT-Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Whatì 2018
View Videos:
Fish Camp Videos: Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program (TAEMP)
These four videos document the fish,water and sediment monitoring camps that have been held since 2011. The "fish camps" are part of the TAEMP program, a community-based program to monitor the aquatic ecosystems near each of the four Tłı̨chǫ communities.
These two educational videos show how fish, water and sediment samples are collected and explain how the information they provide when analyzed helps develop a picture of the health of fish and their habitat.
Youth Working at Fish Camp near Wekweètì: (Photo: Karin Clark, WRRB)
