SALMON FISHERIES

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 7

SALMON FISHERIES

FRASER RIVER RUN.

OBLITERATION THREATENED.

(N.Z. Herald Correspondent.)

Vancouver, March 16.

The Government of British Columbia has threatened that, unless the United States Senate ratifies the salmon treaty, it will recommend the complete obliteration of the Fraser River salmon run and develop the Skeena River and other streams to take. its place. This is no idle boast. Canada has been negotiating with the United States for regulation of Pacific Coast salmon fisheries for twenty years, and, though the United States Government and House of Representatives have endorsed their agreements, the American Senate has always held them up, due to the action of Mr. Borah’s foreign relations committee. Some agreement is necessary, as the international border runs through the Gulf of Georgia and. the Straits of Juan de Fuca, into which the Fraser River empties, and the salmon come and go between their spawning ground and the sea. The fishermen of the State of Washington have consistently refused to come to any agreement. The British spirit of sportsmanship that allows the salmon a weekly rest from nets and seiners has no appeal to them. Likewise, they refuse to endorse the British method of giving the salmon a sporting chance to escape. Year in, year out, they have taken the lion’s share of the "run” without accepting the slightest responsibility. And, forsooth, the United States will have it believed that a group of fishermen in one of the -48 States of the Union can veto the actions of the President and his Government, as well as the Lower House of Congress. In 1910 Canada drew up regulations for the preservation of the Fraser salmon. The treaty was held up in the United States Senate, after being agreed to by both Federal Governments. A second treaty was agreed to, then a third and a fourth, but the Senate was adamant. On more than one occasion the pretext was given, that it was undesirable to lose support in the West for the Republican Party, or to have any disagreement during a Presidential election year. President Hoover has expressed his approval of the present treaty, which was drafted four years ago, and has urged the Senate to pass it. As in all previous cases, when Canadian-Ameri-can relations reach breaking point, an inconsequential amendment is proposed by the State of Washington, which secures years of further delay. Meantime the Fraser River "pack” has fallen from 25,000,000 cases in 1913 to 1,250,000 cases in 1931, three-fourths of which goes to the State of Washington. With patience exhausted, British Columbia has at last threatened to discontinue re-stocking the greatest salmon stream in the world; also to remove the eggs from Fraser River fish during the next few years, transplanting them solely under the Union Jack.