S
Salmon war
Identification Harvesting dispute between U.S.
and Canadian Pacific Northwest fisheries
Date 1994-1999
The salmon war showed the dangers to native fisheries from
free-for-all competition and loosely regulated industrial
fishing in international and territorial waters.
The salmon fisheries of the Pacific Northwest are bi-
national resources because native Pacific salmon mi-
grate across state and international borders during
their ocean life cycle. Difficulties arise when harvest-
ers in one territory intercept salmon heading to
spawn in the rivers of another territory. The diffi-
culty of establishing a fisheries management policy
satisfactory to all harvest participants is nearly im-
possible because fishing in one region results in ma-
jor shifts in abundance of spawning salmon in an-
other region. What one group of fishers interprets as
a legal salmon harvest, another group of fishers in-
terprets as theft of their native resource, their share
of a potential harvest, and the resultant destruction
of their native fisheries’ sustainable potential.
In 1994, Canada attempted to effect changes in
the international harvest allocations of Pacific sal-
mon by imposing fees on American fishing vessels
passing through British Columbia territorial waters
on their way to Alaska. The United States retaliated
by threatening to raise trade duties on ships travel-
ing to Canadian ports via the Juan de Fuca Strait. In
1995, Native North American tribes, the Canadian
government, and the state governments of Oregon
and Washington sued the state of Alaska over what
they felt were Alaska’s unfair salmon management
policies. Between 1996 and 1998, Canadian officials
criticized Alaska’s chinook salmon quota and began
again to impound American vessels en route to Alas-
kan fishing grounds. During this time, the Canadian
government also unilaterally established fishing
quotas on Pacific salmon. American fisheries man-
agers retaliated by allowing an unlimited harvest on
Fraser River Basin sockeye salmon, intercepting the
salmon before they could reach the Fraser River
spawning grounds in British Columbia. In response,
Canadian fishers took as many American salmon as
possible to maintain what they felt was equity; in a
show of solidarity, Canadian fishing boats blockaded
an American ferry in Prince Rupert Harbor.Impact On June 30, 1999, the Canadian and U.S.
governments signed the Pacific Salmon Treaty in an
effort to coordinate management of the North
American salmon fisheries. The treaty takes into ac-
count the fact that various fisheries along the West
Coast differ substantially, and establishes two types
of harvest quotas: abundance-based fisheries har-
vests based on aggregate abundance of salmon pres-
ent, and individual stock-based harvests based on
the evolving status of endangered or threatened
stocks. As the salmon war demonstrated, industrial
fishing can lead to cutthroat competition as fishers
battle for sea space to intercept salmon before their
competitors.
Unfortunately, years of unchecked maximum sal-
mon harvests, hydroelectric and water retention
dams across spawning rivers, and destruction of
spawning habitat from human encroachment have
resulted in such low abundance of salmon returning
to spawn that a temporary ban on commercial sal-
mon harvests was initiated along the West Coast in
2008.Further Reading
Brown, Dennis.Salmon Wars: The Battle for the West
Coast Salmon Fisher y. Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour,
2005.
Cone, Joseph, and Sandy Ridlington, eds.The North-
west Salmon Crisis: A Documentar y Histor y. Corvallis:
Oregon State University Press, 2000.
Rogers, Raymond A.The Oceans Are Emptying: Fish
Wars and Sustainability. Montreal: Black Rose
Books, 1995.
Randall L. Milstein