The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty

For thousands of years, Pacific salmon have been the focus for theeconomic and social development of societies, both ancient and modern,around the rim of the North Pacific Ocean. After lengthy oceanicmigrations, the salmon pass through coastal waters of Alaska, BritishColumbia, and the northwest United States in a final journey to spawn,where they form lucrative targets for Canadian and US fishermen. Beginning late in the nineteenth century and culminating in the 1985Pacific Salmon Treaty, Canada and the United States carried out longand contentious negotiations to provide a framework for cooperation forconserving and sharing the vitally important Pacific salmon resource.The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty traces the history of thetumultuous negotiations, providing an insiders perspective onthe many complex issues that were addressed. It concludes with a briefassessment of the treatys performance under the difficulteconomic and environmental circumstances that have prevailed in thefishery since 1985. This incisive work, with its unique historical perspective, will beof great interest to the Canadian and United States fishing communitiesaffected by the treaty, to the general public, politicians, andfisheries specialists in both countries concerned with stewardship ofnatural resources, and to scholars of international law and regionalhistory.