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Precolonial History
Northern Abalone along the Pacific Northwest Coast have been used by Indigenous peoples for millennia for various purposes including food, trade and exchange, clothing and adornment and ceremonial purposes. Northern Abalone are known to the Gitxaala Nation as bilhaa and are central to Gitxaala language and culture.

Commercial Dive Fishery to Present
Before 1972, abalone fishing in British Columbia was unregulated and was primarily Aboriginal and recreational. The annual harvest rates were estimated to be less than 15-20 tons. A non-Aboriginal abalone fishery rapidly developed in the 1970s as a result of increased price to fishermen for abalone and uncontrolled increases in fishing capacity. Harvest rates increased to 481 tons in 1977 and then stayed at 47 tons from 1985 to the closure of the fishery in 1990.

Governmental
In 2001, Fisheries and Oceans Canada formed the Abalone Recovery Team with the task in adopting rebuilding strategies for Abalone recovery. Since 2000, several project went underway in testing potential strategies for rebuilding the Northern Abalone population. These include establishing methods in improving abalone reproduction, studying the migration of abalone larvae through the ocean currents and identifying areas with the greatest potential as reintroduction sites for larval establishment. In the same year of 2001, an Abalone Coast Watch program was developed to monitor local abalone populations along the coast of British Columbia and to report suspicious and illegal activities, as well as the establishment of permanently marked monitoring sites for Northern Abalone on several locations including the coastal islands of British Columbia.

Anthropological
Charles Menzies, anthropologist and member of the Gitxaala Nation has collaborated with the Gitxaala Nation in researching the status, history and cultural significance of the bilhaa and has advocated return to a Gitxaała controlled bilhaa fishery.

1. Recovery Strategy for Northern Abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) in Canada (Final) http://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=CD44A15B-1