Canada, 3 states set to reduce salmon haul

PORTLAND, Oregon — Canada and the U.S. states of Alaska, Oregon and Washington would all reduce their catch of fragile salmon species under the terms of an updated international agreement that, if approved, will spell out the next decade of co-operation between the U.S. and Canada to keep the migratory fish afloat in Pacific waters.

Members of the Pacific Salmon Commission on Monday recommended a conservation plan that stretches to 2028 after two years of intense negotiations involving fishermen, tribes and First Nations on both sides of the border, and state and federal officials. It must be approved by both the U.S. and Canadian governments.

The international commission first met in 1985 to create more co-operation between Canada and the U.S. on protecting salmon, which migrate thousands of miles from inland streams to the Pacific Ocean and then back to their spawning place.

The agreement covers pink, Coho, sockeye, chum and chinook salmon and spans a territory from Cape Falcon, Oregon, in the south to southeast Alaska in the north. The current agreement expires Dec. 31.

One of the most significant parts of the new treaty is reductions in the allowed harvest of chinook salmon, and particularly of chinook populations that are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

That includes chinook stocks from the Puget Sound in Washington and the Columbia River basin that straddles Oregon and Washington. These salmon migrate north hundreds of kilometres to British Columbia and southeast Alaska, making it important to protect their numbers all along the journey, commission members agreed.

Orcas in off Vancouver Island and Puget Sound, which rely on chinook as a primary food source, have struggled recently because so few salmon are making it to the Pacific Ocean.

Alaska will reduce its catch by 7.5 per cent in the southeast when poor chinook returns are expected. Canada will do so by 12.5 per cent and Oregon and Washington will reduce their catch anywhere from five to 15 per cent, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The updated treaty was announced a few days after Washington state authorities took the highly unusual step of closing salmon fishing on a section of the main stem of the Columbia River. The count of fall chinook at Bonneville Dam last week was 105,795 fish, about half of what is normal.

The fall chinook count at Bonneville Dam hovers about 29 per cent below the preseason forecast.