The Salmon War: A 19th-Century Plea for Equitable Fishing
A sea captain argues that restrictive fishing regulations are designed to benefit luxury fur traders at the expense of the working class’s food supply.
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.
The salmon output of the North Pacific is estimated at 30,000,000 pounds. The salmon which our fishermen permit to the North Pacific and Alaska are 9,000,000 pounds of that total, an amount which, if utilized by the American fishermen, would meet the demand of the whole West. We ask Congress to give them the right to go into any American waters, particularly those immediately adjacent to the North Pacific to hunt and fish for salmon and fish for them; and this means that we can have cheap transport across our land so that every person in the country can have cheap food which is now forbidden to him by the extortions of the railroads. We want our fish transported into the interior and across the continent as cheaply as charged by the railroads for California fruit freight. At present the fishing business is depressed; fishermen are discouraged; they are not allowed in fishing areas. It seems to me that the government, in this matter, is not working for the benefit of the fishermen to provide food for the people and to add to their own bread earnings by permitting them to take a few salmon on the high seas. It is working for the benefit of a single company who are not food producers but purveyors of articles of luxury in the shape of seal skin furs for the wealthy.
“It seems to me that the government, in this matter, is not working for the benefit of the fishermen to provide food for the people... it is working for the benefit of a single company who are not food producers but purveyors of articles of luxury.”
This 19th-century struggle over the privatization of maritime resources for luxury profit at the expense of local food security echoes contemporary debates over corporate control of the Pacific Northwest's natural assets, from salmon management to the rising cost of living.
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