IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
The Pacific Northwest should unite to tackle overharvest in the Pacific Salmon Treaty
Washington and Oregon may have more common cause with Canada than they do Alaska.As officials dig into the renegotiation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, there’s an elephant in the room.
Though commissioners representing Washington and Oregon are on the same side of the negotiating table as their counterparts from Alaska, their needs are more aligned with Canada’s.
Just like B.C., Oregon and Washington are impacted by the relentless over-harvest of their salmon stocks as they migrate through Southeast Alaska, and by Alaska’s excessive flooding of the North Pacific Ocean pasture with hatchery fish.
To defend our shared salmon heritage, Canadians should find common purpose with their natural allies in the Pacific Northwest. Though we harvest each other’s salmon, the impacts are roughly proportional.
If Washington, Oregon and Canada ensure a new treaty addresses their shared issues, it’s more likely that Alaska’s aggressive fishing behaviour can be curtailed, leaving more opportunity for B.C., Washington and Oregon to recover threatened populations of salmon and steelhead, while protecting their remaining fisheries.
Finding that spirit of co-operation should not be difficult. The corridor between Portland and Vancouver links one of the most prosperous and integrated regions in the world, bound by a shared history, culture and economy.
From the Skeena to the Skagit to the Columbia, salmon are woven into the very fabric of our identity — powering Indigenous cultures, driving local economies and defining our ecological wealth.
The Pacific Salmon Treaty is vital. The management of the migratory nature of salmon, their complex life-cycle, which plays out over vast geographies, and their evolving relationship with the changing climate requires international cooperation.
However, the last version of the treaty proved unable to protect salmon and steelhead from B.C., Washington and Oregon from decisions made in Alaska. Here’s why.
The winter troll fishery occurs in Alaskan waters, but is designed to target chinook from B.C., Washington and Oregon, whose stocks comprise the vast majority of the catch.
First, Alaska’s notorious interception fisheries target salmon migrating to Canada, Washington and Oregon.
Three of these fisheries — the Southeast Alaska Chinook Troll, District 104 Seine and District 101 Drift Gillnet — are unsustainable. Combined, they harvest more Canadian salmon than all Canadian fisheries, with substantial impacts on Washington and Oregon stocks, as well. They also deprive endangered southern resident killer whales of chinook and fail to adequately monitor or report their substantial bycatch.
Second, Alaska’s out-of-control hatchery programs are using the vital North Pacific as an open-ocean feedlot for the billions of juvenile pink and chum their hatcheries pump out every year. By overpopulating the ocean with lower-value fish, they are tipping the ecological scales for their own benefit. Consequently, our wild chinook, coho, chum, sockeye and steelhead are returning smaller and in fewer numbers.
To date, polite requests and scientific presentations have failed. When issues about Alaskan over-fishing were raised in formal processes, at times the Alaskan delegation refused to answer questions from members from British Columbia, and even walked out of the room to avoid difficult conversations.
However, if British Columbia, Washington and Oregon all demand conservation-oriented changes to fishery management and harvest limits and modern catch monitoring in Alaska’s interception fisheries, the three jurisdictions will get better outcomes from the treaty.
Alaska is a fishing behemoth, used to getting its way. However, the Pacific Northwest has options.
First, we have substantial economic leverage. Most high-value Southeast Alaskan seafood products like sockeye and chinook must transit through our jurisdictions. If Alaska insists on intercepting our fish, we should refuse to facilitate their profits.
Second, if negotiations fail, we should consider suing the State of Alaska for ecological harm and economic damage.
The science is becoming clear: Alaska’s hatchery over-production is directly impacting the productivity of our salmon economy.
The path through the difficult negotiations ahead will be easier if B.C., Washington and Oregon co-operate. By standing together to defend our resources and making it clear that the plunder of our salmon will no longer be tolerated, a better Pacific Salmon Treaty that works for us all is possible.
