Adams River Salmon Society

The ritual of the sockeye's return has been happening since the glaciers of the ice age carved out the present geography of British Columbia. But events in the modern era have threatened to break the cycle forever.

In 1913, railway construction at Hell's Gate in the Fraser Canyon caused a rock slide that blocked part of the Fraser River. Fortunately, most of the Adams River sockeye were able to get through the narrow channels once the river's water levels subsided.

However, in the years that followed, the salmon runs faced a new threat. A dam was built upstream from Adams Lake and was used, from time to time, to flood the river and float logs downstream. At these times, hurtling logs would scour the stream bed. Between floods, water levels fell so low leaving the river bed almost dry and eggs that had survived the flooding were exposed to the elements and to predators.

The log drives ended in 1922. By the mid-1930s, the Adams River run had recovered. In 1937, Canada and the United States joined forces to protect the stocks based on common interest - Canadians and Americans both fish Fraser River salmon within their respective waters.

To ease the upstream passage of fish during the low-water winters of 1944-45 and 1945-46, the two nations cooperated in the building of two major fishways, one on each bank. But in 1954 a new threat emerged along the Fraser River, high water levels were late in coming and more fishways were required to help the salmon on their way.

These concrete-walled structures with their slotted partitions reduce the speed of the river flow, making it easier for migrating fish to make their way to calmer waters upstream. They have proved to be extremely effective in helping migrating salmon cope with the normal fluctuations of water levels that occur in the summer. To accommodate increased numbers of fish passing through the canyon during abnormally high fluctuations, additional fishways were built. Today there are nine fishways at Hell's Gate.

Formal collaboration in rebuilding and conserving the stocks began in 1937, when theUnited States and Canada formed the International Pacific Salmon Commission to help rebuild Fraser River salmon, to restore habitat and to build fishways on the river and its tributaries.

The cost of the first Hell's Gate fishways was $1.4 million. Between 1937 and 1985 when the international agreement came up for review, Canada and the United States each contributed over $23 million to the construction of artificial spawning channels and to other measures to rebuild pink and sockeye stocks along the Fraser River. Since 1985, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has contributed almost $3 million to the construction and maintenance of fishways along the Fraser River.

In 1985, Canada and the United States signed a new agreement, the Pacific Salmon Treaty, and formed a new organization to administer it, the Pacific Salmon Commission. The agreement is an alliance based on the principles of long-term conservation and equity. It focuses on the interception of salmon by fishing vessels operating within the 200-nautical-mile limits established by Canada and the United States in 1977.

The treaty is intended to fulfil two goals: to rebuild and achieve optimum production of salmon stocks, and to ensure that each party receives benefits equivalent to the production of salmon from its own waters.