Canada Fishing Info

The changes, hammered out over a year and a half by US and Canadian representatives on the Pacific Salmon Commission, would mean a 15% cut in chinook caught in southeast Alaska compared to what’s allowed today, and a 30% cut off the west coast of Vancouver Island. That’s expected to translate into more fish returning to Washington, because many of those chinook, particularly the ones off Vancouver Island, spawn in Puget Sound rivers and the Columbia River. Troll fishing, the most common technique for commercial chinook fishing, relies on long fishing lines with multiple hooks pulled behind a boat. In Canada, negotiator Gerry Kristianson, who sits on the Pacific Salmon Commission and represented sport-fishing interests, said he supported the deal partly because the US was willing to cut Alaskan fishing levels in return for the Canadian cuts. Canadians in the past have complained that Alaskan fishermen catch too many fish bound for Canadian rivers, while US officials objected that Canadian fishermen haul in too many salmon bound for US waters. In the 1990s, the last time the treaty was renegotiated, tempers grew so hot that Canadian fishermen blockaded an Alaska ferry terminal for days, and Canadian authorities seized several US fishing boats in Canadian waters. read more

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