Alaskan exploitation on many BC populations, such as Area 3 (Nass), 4 (Skeena), and 5 (coastal streams south of the Skeena), sockeye, coho, chum and pink salmon, central coast salmon populations of all species, Fraser River sockeye and chinook from Vancouver Island, Strait of Georgia, and Fraser River populations.
While commercial fishing was nearly non-existent in B.C. last summer, Alaskan fleets just across the border logged over 3,000 boat-days and harvested almost 800,000 sockeye, that’s 800,000, (most of which were of Canadian origin)
Most of the interception of BC bound salmon takes place in Alaska’s District 104, on the Alaska panhandle, where local rivers do not support significant salmon populations. Nearly all the salmon and steelhead caught in District 104 are bound for streams in BC and elsewhere in Southeast Alaska, or Washington and Oregon. A Pacific Salmon treaty should be the first step.
