10 mi KlSOl'RtfS 



names, thev arc referred to in this report as sockeye, 

 chum, pink, eoho and chiiu>ok. These live species diller 

 in important respects including their productivity, 

 dependence on freshwater habitat, si/e, behaviour and 

 susccptibihtv to lishing gear, longevity, quahty character- 

 istics, and markets. 



Salmon have been used by native Indians t"ri)m time 

 immemorial, and they have supported an industrial 

 fishery tor more than a century. Salmon became the 

 region's second export item (after furs) when the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company began exporting salted salmon from 

 Fort Langley on the Fraser River in 1830. The first com- 

 mercial cannery in British Columbia began operation in 

 1870, also on the Fraser River. Canneries had expanded 

 throughout the coast by the turn of the century, as had 

 the exploitation of salmon stocks. 



Until 1903 any variety other than "red" salmon (sock- 

 eye, Chinook or coho) was rejected by the canners. But 

 because salmon runs were poor in 1903, canners began 

 processing the prolific pink and chum salmon. Their use 

 increased sharply in 1911 in response to a disappointing 

 catch of Fraser River sockeye and increased demands for 

 canned salmon. Since then, pinks and chums have held 

 an important place in the commercial salmon fishery. 



Table 2-2 indicates recent catch levels in the commer- 

 cial, sport and Indian fisheries. (Because Canadian fisher- 

 men make significant interceptions of salmon produced 

 in United States waters, and vice versa, the catches do 

 not reflect production from Canadian stocks exclusively.) 

 These data reveal a number of significant facts: the com- 

 mercial sector dominates the catch, taking 93 percent of 

 the total; net gear takes almost all the sockeye, pinks and 

 chums, while troll gear takes most of the coho and chi- 

 nooks; the sport fishery takes a significant share of Chi- 

 nook and coho and little else, and accounts for about 4 to 

 5 percent of the total catch; the Indian fishery accounts 

 for about 2 percent and is directed primarily at sockeye. 



.Slock Trends 



I o accuialely measure the salmon stocks produced in 

 Canadian waters requires adding together the harvests in 

 the commercial fisheries and adjusting the total for for- 

 eign fish, interceptions by foreign fleets, catches in the 

 Indian and sport fisheries, and escapements. We are not 

 able to measure these various components of the stocks 

 with equal reliability even in recent years, and for earlier 

 periods some ot the data are unavailable. Nevertheless, 

 some long-term trends can be inferred from the records 

 of commercial landings. 



Figure 2-1 depicts commercial salmon landings by 

 Canadian fishermen since 1915, measured by the number 

 offish and the number of pounds. Both are plotted (using 

 the best information available) in terms of their moving 

 10-year average in order to smooth the wide fluctuations 

 between cycles and years. 



Figure 2-1 Commercial landings of all salmon in num- 

 bers offish and landed weight since 1915, in 

 ten-year averages." 



z 





 (/; 

 z 

 O 



1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 



^The figure plotted for each year is the average of landings recorded in that year 

 and the preceding nine years. 



Sources: See footnote 3. 



Sources: See Footnote 2. 



