Salmon Management in the United States

Abstract

The salmon fishery of the United States illustrates the major principles and problems of fishery management: regulation of the fishery, maintenance of the environment, and artificial augmentation of the stocks. It also includes controls both in fresh water and on the high seas. The industry has experienced the age-old conflicts between large- and small-scale fisheries, and administrators have had to wrestle with the problem of allocating the catch among various contenders. This problem has been confused with that of conservation. Prohibition of salmon traps, restrictions on size and mode of operation of purse seines, and prohibition of monofilament gillnets are examples of the kinds of compromises made between allocation and conservation.Dams, pollution, and other modifications of the freshwater environment have endangered salmon stocks. An early response was to raise salmon artificially and release them. For many years this technique was unsuccessful, and when it was evaluated most hatcheries were closed. In recent years the preservation of the genetic identity of the stock and improved diets and schedules of release have resulted in greater success of hatcheries. Spawning channels show promise of additional success. Another practice of value has been development of devices to pass fish over dams, both upstream and down.Control of fishing to provide adequate spawning has concentrated on manipulation of individual population units, an enormously complicated task since the number of these in United States streams is in the order of 10,000. Of these about 100 major ones are under separate control. Regulations depend on forecasts, since fishing takes place before the salmon reach spawning grounds. Forecasts have improved greatly in recent years, although much remains to be done.Among problems on which no great progress has been made are: extent and consequences of genetic change produced by selective fishing; causes of cycles, and alterations in these; effects of changing environment, especially subtle ones of temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pollution; control of recruitment, including release of hardy young. Difficult economic problems include: the tendency for regulations to favor inefficient operators; high costs of research and regulation, borne not by users but by public funds.Administrative achievements include: a high degree of environmental protection; remarkably parallel regulations in the three States principally involved, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon; successful joint regulation of international fisheries in cooperation with Canada and Japan.Problems which will continue to exist and increase in difficulty include protection of the environment of the salmon, rivalries between many diverse interest groups, and improvement in culture operations. The major step of restricting entry into the commercial salmon fishery is being contemplated in several locations.