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Leases and purchases of fishing privileges are not unprecedented ~ such transfers have 

 been consummated for Southern bluefin tuna and Atlantic salmon (see Muse and 

 Schelle, 1989 and NMFS, 1993a for a further discussion of these transfers) to improve 

 conservation and rebuild stocks. Improved understanding of the ocean distribution of 

 salmon will be necessary to reduce incidental take and allow a transferable quota share 

 system to work. 



The equity principle establishes that the benefits accrued to each party are equivalent to 

 the production of salmon originating in its waters. Reducing interceptions in relevant 

 fisheries is an obvious concern. Interception fisheries, such as the West Coast of 

 Vancouver Island Troll and the Washington State Fraser Sockeye and Pink salmon 

 fisheries, continue based on agreed upon trade-offs in U.S. and Canadian-origin fish. 

 Achieving an equitable allocation of harvest benefits has also proven to be difficult. 

 One reason is that determining the precise numbers of salmon intercepted by each 

 country is a challenging task. Moreover, in order to assess the economic benefits 

 which are foregone by (and owed to) each country from intercepted fishes, a new 

 economic valuation method is needed, but has yet to be completed and approved by 

 the two parties. When the distribution or abundance of specific salmon populations 

 changes, interceptions by one or another party may increase, potentially creating 

 conflict. For example, the harvest of unusually abundant pink salmon runs in 

 Southeast Alaska by U.S. fishermen has resulted in increased interception of sockeye 

 salmon originating in Canada's Fraser River. 



* The allocation of transferable percentage shares of TACs could help increase 

 flexibility needed to adapt to changes in the distribution and abundance of salmon 

 populations. 



The PST includes four Annexes which are subject to periodic review and renegotiation 

 (hence the annual negotiation process). Of the four Annexes, Annex IV is the most 

 relevant to the current discussion; the six chapters of Annex IV deal directly with 

 harvest allocation between various U.S. and Canadian fisheries. Although the chapters 

 of Annex IV are intended to expire and be re-negotiated on a rotating basis, the lack of 

 long-term agreements from the 1993 round of negotiations has left a number of 

 important issues for the current round of negotiations. Annex IV is composed of the 

 following Chapters: 



Chapter 1. Transboundary rivers stocks (i.e. Alsek, Taku, Stikine Rivers) 



Chapter 2. Northern B.C. and Southeast Alaska fisheries at Noyes Island and other 

 northern B.C. fisheries 



