Calm Urged In U.S.-Canada Salmon Talks

As Pacific salmon negotiations between Canada and the United States resume, Canada’s new fisheries minister, David Anderson, and Washington Gov. Gary Locke on Tuesday urged more cooperation and less rhetoric.

Both sides should prepare to accept some sacrifices as the involved state and federal governments consider how to share a dwindling, but important, resource and try to rebuild some of the planet’s premier fish runs, they told a joint news conference after a private meeting at the Capitol.

Negotiations resume today in Vancouver, British Columbia, following a three-week hiatus that escalated into harsh words and Canada’s brief seizure of four U.S. fishing vessels.

Locke and Anderson said they’re optimistic a deal can be struck, preferably within a week.

“It is in our mutual self-interest, both economically and environmentally, to reach an agreement as soon as possible,” Locke said.

“Clearly, none of us wants to be fighting over the very last salmon,” the governor said.

Anderson, newly installed as Ottawa’s minister of fisheries and oceans, welcomed the “cordial” reception he got from Locke, and, earlier in the day, from Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles in Juneau.

“We certainly believe it is in the best interest of both of our countries to have an agreement under the treaty for the maximum conservation of the resource and maximum opportunity for our fishers,” Anderson said.

The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty is supposed to be renewed annually, but negotiators have not been able to reach agreement on terms for renewal since 1994.

Negotiators from the two countries, joined by state representatives and user groups, seek a pact to allocate the harvest of Pacific salmon in waters off Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and southeast Alaska.

Canada says U.S. fishermen have been catching roughly 4 million more salmon each year than they should be, costing the Canadian industry $45 million annually.

Negotiations broke down on May 20. Canada then detained, fined and released four U.S.-flagged boats for passing through Canada’s Inside Passage, between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland, without checking in with Canadian officials.

The United States countered by refusing to return to the table until now.

Anderson, asked if British Columbia Premier Glen Clark had been out of line in his criticism of Ottawa and American interests, said: “I have not come to Olympia to be critical of a fellow politician. We will attempt to have a common front.”

He defended the seizing of the boats as “certain steps we took to get the attention of the American authorities.”