Pacific Salmon: Treaty or War?

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about on the Canada: US front, the treaty that governs how we share fishing rights with the US is up for renegotiation. Pacific Salmon Commissioners from three US states and Canada met in February in Vancouver to begin the negotiations. 

The years when we didn’t have the treaty weren’t good news for wild salmon. Whether it was Alaskan fishers scooping Fraser salmon, or Canadian fishers trying to ensure they got every last fish before they crossed the southern border, it was the salmon that paid the price.  

The Pacific Salmon Treaty was first signed in 1985, enshrining the principle that each country should participate in the fishery in proportion to the production of fish from its rivers. But in 1992, the agreement broke down. The period from then until the Treaty was revived in 1999 was known as the Salmon Wars. Fishermen everywhere were engaging in acts of protest, blockading vessels of the other side. The government weighed in with a steep ‘transit fee’ and new regulations imposed on US vessels using the inside waters to get to the Alaskan fishing grounds. 

The Salmon Wars marked the beginning of a steep decline in Fraser salmon, to historically low levels. 

From 1999 to the present, the Treaty has been renewed in 10-year intervals, the next of which will begin in 2028. It is vitally important to the recovery of threatened and endangered salmon populations that the Treaty should be renewed. Funding for the recovery and monitoring of the Fraser’s wild salmon is no doubt assigned to support Treaty commitments.