Book Review . . .
Stephanie Showalter

Salmon Wars
The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery
Dennis Brown (Harbour Publishing, 2005).

In Salmon Wars: The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery, Dennis Brown provides a eulogy for the Canadian salmon fishery as he knew it. In the 1990's, just as the cod stocks were collapsing on the East Coast of Canada, Canadian salmon fishermen were battling for their right to harvest Pacific salmon. The fishermen were fighting a losing battle against the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the canning industry, conservationists, and, most appallingly, Americans. The individual fishermen did not stand a chance. Fleet reduction in the ‘70s and ‘80s pushed many owner-operator fishermen out of the industry and conservation concerns in the ‘90s almost shut the fishery down entirely.

Salmon Wars is not an account of industry greed and declining fish stocks. Millions of Pacific salmon were returning to Canadian rivers in the late ‘90s. This is a tale of politics - domestic, international, corporate. The salmon were the unfortunate pawns in a game of chess being played by politicians, corporate executives, native leaders, and fishermen. Brown served on the front lines during the Pacific salmon crisis, first as a union organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union and later as fishery policy advisor to the Premier of British Columbia. Through Brown's eyes, the reader sees how the Canadian salmon fishermen are pushed to the edge by government inaction, indifference, and compromise. It's an important case study of one of the most contentious fish wars in the history of Canada-U.S. relations.