The Pacific Salmon Commission is a regulatory body run jointly by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

s. Its mandate is to protect stocks of the five species of

Pacific salmon ''Oncorhynchus'' is a genus of fish in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmon and Pacific trout. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek ὄγκος (ónkos, “lump, bend”) + ῥύγχος (rhúnkhos, “snout”), in r ...

. Its precursor was the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, which operated from 1937 to 1985. The PSC enforces the Pacific Salmon Treaty, ratified by Canada and the U.S. in 1985.

Origins

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Pacific salmon have been an important food source and trade commodity for Northwest First Nations peoples for millennia. After European explorers arrived, the first large-scale commercial salmon fisheries were started in the early 1800s. Lucrative fisheries were established on the Columbia and

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ele ...

rivers, including

canneries Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although un ...

geared for export. Harvests increased year-to-year until the 1910s. The abundance of the resource had precluded any disagreements between the Canadian and American governments until this point. However, from the 1920s onward, stocks began to decline, a result of

over-fishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the ...

and the degradation and obstruction of migratory rivers. Competition between American and Canadian fisheries for the dwindling resource led to conflict. Disputes were complicated by the fact that the salmon crossed several international borders during their lifespan. In 1930, the governments met and proposed the Fraser River Convention to regulate fishing and mitigate environmental damage to salmon habitats. The International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission was formally founded in 1937.

IPSFC

The early focus of the IPSFC was to restore the Fraser runs of

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

. Three obstacles were identified - the Hells Gate portion of the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

(where a landslide in 1913 caused by railway engineers had partially blocked the river), the

Quesnel River The Quesnel River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the Cariboo District of central British Columbia. It begins at the outflow of Quesnel Lake, at the town of Likely and flows for about northwest to its confluence with the Fraser at ...

splash dam, and the Adams River splash dam. During the 1940s, fish ladders and spillways were constructed by the Commission at Hell's Gate. The splash dams on the Quesnel and Adams were dynamited and removed.

Pacific Salmon Treaty

By the 1970s, cooperation between the two governments in setting fishing quotas had faltered. In 1982, a comprehensive treaty was signed and was fully ratified in 1985. It limited catches of Alaska, Fraser, and Columbia salmon to pre-set quotas and committed the governments to improving the spawning capacities of the region's rivers. The treaty was amended in 1999.

Structure

The PSC is divided into five panels. The Northern Panel covers Alaska and northern British Columbia stocks. The Fraser River Panel covers the Fraser, while the Southern Panel is responsible for the Columbia and other U.S. stocks. The Yukon and Transboundary Panels monitor stock in the Yukon River, and stock in rivers crossing through British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle respectively. Each panel monitors harvesting, spawning, and habitat quality in its respective region, then makes recommendations to the Commission. These recommendations determine seasonal fishing quotas and openings.

Origins

IPSFC

Pacific Salmon Treaty

Structure

References

Further reading