Conservation Crisis revisited--1905 and 1999

The common opinion in Prince Rupert is that the salmon conservation crisis isn't real (coho stocks not endangered, or at best a few insignificant streams in upper Skeena are involved), thus the discussion quickly degenerates into some variation of conspiracy theory, or some strategy that involves advertisement campaigns rather than newer selective fisheries.

The decision not to proceed with carefully monitored, selective gillnet fisheries after July 21^st, was not in line with past management methods on the Skeena nor was it in line with top DFO Skeena coho biologists' information. However, the decision was made -we must now work towards ensuring that this type of devastating management never occurs again

This approach sees the problem as economic-- the Babine run is being wasted and the fishers and processors at the mouth of the Skeena are being punished.

Now contrast that with the following quote from Tangled Web where a 1905 fisheries "overseer" sees a huge conservation problem on the 'upper Skeena' caused by Indian fisheries

Babine Smokehouse BC Archives

A report in detail concerning the manner in which Indians at the head- waters of the Skeena and other northern rivers are striking at the very root of the life of the salmon-fishing industry in British Columbia, one of the greatest sources of the people's wealth, has been received ...No less than 2,000,000 salmon, most of them females full of spawn, were killed in the Indian traps this year. That number of fish, if canned, , would make about 142,857 cases, or 44,188 cases more than the total Skeena River pack of all classes of fish in 1903

Note we are talking about Babine River sockeye. All the experts tell you that they are no more valuable than land fill and yet we see the Babine people catching and preserving huge numbers at the turn of century.

A most wonderful sight met our eyes when we beheld the immense array of dried salmon. On either side there were no less than 16 houses 30 x 27 x 8 feet [9 x 8.25 x 2.5 m] filled with salmon from the top down so low that one had to stoop to get into them, and also an immense quantity of racks, filled up outside. If the latter had stood close together they would have covered acres and acres of ground, and though it was impossible to form an estimate, we judged it to be nearly three- quarters of a million fish at those two barricades, all killed before they had spawned, and though the whole tribe had been working for six weeks and a half it was wonder that so much salmon could be massed together at that time

here is a weir on upper Skeena. Not as elaborate as those described on Babine-- BC Archives photo

Perhaps we are presently seeing a shift as fundamental as when the cannery based commercial fishery that really took off around 1905 on the Skeena usurped all the "surplus" salmon to itself using both conservation and "economic rationality" arguments bolstered by the state and police. One account has the Babine Weirs destroyed by fisheries agents followed by a series of confrontations culminating in imprisonments and then a concession not to use weirs but donated gillnets instead,

'Conservation Crisis' in 1905 compared to 1999-2000