The Lawless Slaughter of Columbia River Salmon
A century and a half ago, reports from 1887 reveal that unregulated commercial fishing practices on the Columbia River led to the mass harvest of out-of-season fish, despite laws designed to prevent such waste.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Several parties in this city claim that salmon are still being caught on the Columbia River. The catch this season has been a failure, and it is reported at 800,000 cases against 600,000 cases last season. The local market is very firm and has advanced from 50 to 60 cents per case during the past two weeks. There is a continued good demand from the Eastern and English markets and the fish supply is selling rapidly. Stocks of the Columbia River salmon are now well concentrated, being held by the two leading houses of this coast. The laws of the State of Oregon and of the Territory of Washington are identical in one particular, at least, that is that they are both flat failures. What has happened in past years is certain to occur this year, for prices are high and the pack to the end of the legal season was short. Last year two of the leading houses on this coast had an arbitration over a lot of salmon admittedly packed out of season—salmon which it was criminal to pack and criminal to buy or sell, in short, a state prison offense according to the law of Oregon, and yet no one thought the gentlemen wrong in endeavoring to get possession of the fish, and three reputable men were willing to act as an arbitration committee to settle ownership. While public opinion is in the state which the above indicates, and while there is no law on the Columbia this year that will beat the average, the August run is promised to be as it has been in the past.
“The laws of the State of Oregon and of the Territory of Washington are identical in one particular, at least, that is that they are both flat failures.”
The depletion of salmon runs remains a central tension in the Pacific Northwest today, pitting industrial resource extraction against environmental sustainability. Much like in 1887, modern efforts to manage the river's ecological health are frequently frustrated by powerful commercial interests that prioritize short-term profit over long-term survival of the species.
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