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While U.S. efforts to protect depressed Canadian salmon stocks have been significant, 

 the U.S. has indeed failed to prevent the loss and degradation of an enormous amount 

 of salmon habitat in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 

 Hydropower development, water diversions for agriculture and urban development, 

 pollution, poor forestry practices, overfishing, harmful hatchery practices, and other 

 anthropogenic factors have contributed to the precipitous decline of U.S. salmon runs. 

 A long period of relatively low ocean productivity off the coasts of California, Oregon, 

 and Washington has exacerbated this decline, particularly in the last 3 years. As a 

 result, many U.S. salmon stocks originating from the Pacific Northwest, including 

 several that mix with Canadian stocks, are depressed and cannot withstand high harvest 

 rates. On the other hand, many Alaskan salmon populations are at record high 

 abundance levels, probably reflecting better freshwater habitat and higher ocean 

 productivity. In harvesting abundant pink salmon, fishermen in Southeast Alaska also 

 harvest sockeye that originate in Canadian watersheds, another source of conflict 

 between the U.S. and Canada. 



In an effort to address its grievances, Canada has implemented a licensing program for 

 all U.S. commercial fishing vessels which transit through selected Canadian waterways. 

 This program, which went into effect on June 15th, 1994, requires the purchase of a 

 CAN$1500 license for each passage. This action is intended to prevent U.S. fishermen 

 from traversing Canadian waters to catch Canadian-origin fish (DFO, 1994c). In 

 addition, the Canadian management plan for the Fraser Panel Area may result in 

 aggressive fisheries prosecuted by Canadian fishermen. This would leave less Fraser 

 River fish for Washington state fishermen. In the early 1980's, the Canadians 

 expanded fisheries which intercepted Washington and Oregon chinook and coho stocks 

 in an attempt to highlight the costs of unilateral management and the benefits of a 

 salmon treaty. 



These events have elevated a difficult treaty negotiation into an international conflict. 

 The roots of the conflict are examined in this paper, and recommendations for 

 addressing it, and for improving the treaty to prevent conflicts in the future, are 

 presented. 



Principles of the Pacific Salmon TVeaty 



The principles of conservation and equity are fundamental to the Pacific Salmon Treaty 

 (PST). The conservation principle calls for each party to prevent overfishing and 

 provide for optimum production. The equity principle calls for the allocation of 

 harvest privileges according to each country's contribution to salmon abundance. 

 Harvest privileges have been allocated as fixed harvest ceilings for many of the 

 fisheries covered by the PST. These fixed harvest ceilings are important obstacles to 



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