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VANCOUVER — Significant numbers of salmon returning to spawn in British Columbia are being caught in southeast Alaskan fisheries, hindering sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s efforts to preserve and rebuild stocks that are declining to historic lows, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ salmon advocatessay. 

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and the United States ratified the Pacific Salmon Treaty in 1985 to manage cross-border harvesting,but it wasn't designed to deal with climate change and stocks that are in crisis, said Greg Knox, executive director of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust based in Terrace, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

"We can't protect and rebuild sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ salmon without Alaska giving us a hand, there's just no way," he said. "The productivity of a lot of our populations has gone way down, so they can't sustain high harvest levels anymore."

The treaty states that both countries should manage their fisheries to prevent overfishing and ensure they each receive benefits equal to the salmon that spawn in their respective waters. But as sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ stocks decline, the treaty is failing to deliver that balance, said Knox, who is a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission's regional panel focused on northern sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and Alaska fisheries.

The Pacific Salmon Commission, which manages the treaty, is holding its annual meeting this week.

Greg Taylor, fisheries adviser for the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½-based Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said Alaska has an "effective veto" in the treaty process since decision-making requires consensus between sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. 

Alaskan law requires that certain salmon management objectives are met, he said, including targets for the number of fish that make it back to their spawning areas.

However, that's not the case for salmon that are returning to rivers in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, said Taylor, who previously sat on the commission's northern panel.

Alaska doesn't have an incentive to curtail its harvesting of salmon that spawn outside its jurisdiction, he said, even as the Canadian government and First Nations in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ have limited harvesting to help preserve stocks.

Doug Vincent-Lang, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the state's fisheries remain in compliance with the treaty.

In reaching agreements, both countries consider "the desirability in most cases"of reducing the harvest of each other's fish.They also consider avoiding the undue disruption of existing fisheries and annual variations in salmon stocks, he said in an email.

The latest agreement requires annual assessments of harvesting rates, Vincent-Lang added.

Fisheries and Oceans sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has said many sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ salmon stocksare declining to historic lows due to climate change, habitat degradation and "fishing pressures."

About 60 per cent of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s commercial salmon fisheries were closed last June as part of the federal government's Pacific salmon recovery efforts.

As sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ stocks decline, the proportional impact of a series of southeast Alaskan seine fisheries is increasing, Knox said. All of the different species migrating together are corralled in a large net known as a seine, he explained.

Genetic sampling indicated that about 650,000 sockeye from sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ were caught by those fisheries last year, an estimate based on data from the northern panel's technical committee, said Knox.

A single Alaskan seine fishery known as district 104 caught more than 400,000 of those sockeye, he said. It operates on the state's outer coast, north of Haida Gwaii, and intercepts the migration route for many sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ salmon. 

Relocating that fishery to inside waters, where much of Alaska's seine fleet for pink salmon already operates, would significantly reduce the harvest of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ stocks, Knox said. 

Taylor said the catch from district 104 represents a "tiny" fraction of the tens of millions of salmon Alaska's fisheries harvest each year, yet it's significant for sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ stocks.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ began closing its own net fisheries that intercepted U.S. stocks in the 1990s, he added.

Alaska doesn't record the harvest of several species, including steelhead, pink and chum salmon that are bound for sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, Knox noted.

"We currently have no real idea how many of those fish Alaska is catching, which is a huge gap and undermines our ability to meet the principles set out in the treaty."

The Southeast Alaska Seiners Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the harvesting of salmon bound for sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Knox said there should be an independent review of the Pacific Salmon Treaty to assess whether it's meeting its own principles and how it could be reformed.

The treaty was last renegotiated in 2018 with the next update set for 2028.

"We can't wait another six years to wait for the treaty to try to deal with this," Knox said. 

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has the option to call an emergency meeting to address Alaska's catch, he added.

Claire Teichman, media secretary for Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, said Canadian and U.S. officials meet regularly about the management of fisheries under the treaty.

A letter sent to Murray this week from two sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ New Democrat MPs urges her to begin "emergency renegotiation" of the treaty to address Alaskan interception of salmon.

"The treaty was originally negotiated in a time of relative abundance to ensure equity in the fishery, it was not a tool intended for conservation and does not address the emergency situation facing our salmon populations today," says the letter from fisheries critic Lisa Marie Barron and Taylor Bachrach. 

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries also said in a statement that the province would continue working with various governments to encourage the reduction of bycatch in Alaska's salmon, halibut and trawl fisheries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2022.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press