Yes / Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are ecological and cultural keystone species along the Northwest Coast of North America and are ubiquitous in archaeological sites of the region. The inability to morphologically identify salmonid post-cranial remains to species, however, can limit our understanding of the ecological and cultural role different taxa played in the seasonal subsistence practices of Indigenous groups in the past. Here, we present a rapid, cost-effective ZooMS method to distinguish salmonid species based on collagen peptide mass-fingerprinting. Using modern reference material and an assemblage of 28 DNA-identified salmonid bones from the pre-contact Yup'ik site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska, we apply high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to identify a series of potential collagen peptide markers to distinguish Pacific salmon. We then confirm these peptide markers with a blind ZooMS analysis (MALDI-TOF-MS) of the archaeological remains. We successfully distinguish five species of anadromous salmon with this ZooMS approach, including one specimen that could not be identified through ancient DNA analysis. Our biomolecular identification of chum (43%), sockeye (21%), chinook (18%), coho (11%) and pink (7%), confirm the exploitation of all five available species of salmonid at Nunalleq.

This study explores the politics of regulating the British Columbia and Washington commercial salmon fisheries between 1937 and 1984. The principal focus of this comparative-historical study is upon one particularly striking exception to the tendency of regulators to tighten commercial salmon fishing restrictions over time - the persistence of liberal offshore trolling regulations. The dissertation argues that the anomalous treatment of the offshore troll fishery during this period may be ascribed to the competition between states for the right to harvest salmon - a common property resource. In making this claim, the study questions the adequacy of the interest-group driven explanations of policy which figure prominently in the literature on regulation. Two pillars of interest group theory, the tendencies to explain national policy only through reference to domestic politics and to reduce state behaviour to little more than the product of the demands of private sector interests, are challenged in this comparative case study. The challenge to the first tendency of interest group theory is sustained by examining the relations between national regulatory preferences and the foreign fishery policy goals of Canada and the United States. The pursuit of two goals - Asian exclusion and North American equity - in bilateral and multilateral negotiations demanded the adoption of particular regulatory profiles. Liberal offshore troll regulations may be explained according to the legitimacy and bargaining advantages they lent to Canadian and American efforts to incorporate these two goals into modifications to the traditional fishery regime. The study also suggests that, in a setting characterized by intergovernmental competition, regulatory policies may not always be equated with the preferences of interested private parties. In this setting the state's ability or willingness to respond to even the most influential private sector interests may be limited by the state's evaluation of its bargaining resources and requirements. State competition created a context where government attitudes towards offshore salmon fishing could be understood in terms of state preferences, preferences derived from officials' perceptions of the legitimacy of various national regulatory policies in the context of valued international institutions. While state competition is the centrepiece of the explanation of national fishery policy developed in this study its explanatory power is mediated by two intervening institutional variables - the capacities of states to formulate and implement policies and the structure of the international regime itself. The level of knowledge regarding the salmon resource played an instrumental role in the formulation of regime goals and of pertinent national policies. The extent to which state management in offshore waters was fragmented between different bureaus affected the ability of officials to adopt national policies which suited their international purposes. The redistribution of the American state's fishery management capacity in the 1970s was a catalyst for the severe restrictions visited upon Washington trailers at that time. A second institutional factor, the structure of the international fishery regime, also mediated the competition between states. The series of reciprocal fishing privileges agreements between Canada and the United States was particularly important in maintaining established offshore regulatory preferences during the 1970s when the clash between American and Canadian salmon fishery perspectives was intensifying. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

The main objective of this study was to estimate the demand for and value of Oregon ocean sport-caught salmon fishery. The primary technique employed to estimate the recreational demand was an aggregated zone average travel cost method (TCM). The willingness of an angler to pay was deduced from the estimated demand for recreational fishing. The concept of consumers' surplus was used in conjunction with the travel-cost based demand functions to estimate the net economic value of Oregon ocean sport-caught salmon. The net economic value computed for the pooled data from all ten ports was found to be about $6.4 million. This value was calculated based on the total travel cost per mile of one-way distance equal to 72 cents. The regional travel cost method (RTCM) was developed to measure the effects of substitutes and quality variables in the travel cost model. A system of a linear demand equations for the six larger ports was estimated by the seemingly unrelated regression equation (SURE) method. The substitute distances as proxies for substitute prices were found to be insignificant for this model. Likewise, attempts to include substitute distances using indexes constructed by the Principal Component analysis failed to give significant results, with the exception of Garibaldi and Brookings. The total net economic value for the regional travel cost model estimated by SURE was $9.1 million. The incremental value per coho equivalent was also assessed by using the relationship between catch and effort per month by port. The coho equivalent was constructed on the basis of average weights of the commercial salmon catch, which was roughly two coho to one chinook salmon. The weighted average incremental value per coho and chinook was found to be $23.46 and $43.17, respectively. These values were about 50 percent of their respective average values. A total of 66 out of 234 distance zones created had zero values. Tobit analysis was employed to efficiently estimate the recreational demand from this kind of data. From the estimated demand function, a net economic value of about $12.7 million was obtained. This value was higher than those estimated by the SURE method and the OLS in the simple model. It should be noted that all the above value estimates were based upon demand models that were not consistent with the theory of consumer demand. However, a theoretically consistent system of demand equations was estimated and presented in Appendix D. This model fitted the data better than the other models and should give more accurate estimates of consumer surplus. / Graduation date: 1989

There is a paucity of information concerning the invertebrate food resources available to juvenile salmonids in the Columbia River as they migrate seaward. Construction of mainstream dams has altered the temperature cycle, flow regime, and substrate which indigenous invertebrates were adapted to. Studies on how the macroinvertebrate community has adapted to these alterations have been neglected. This study was undertaken to help fill this void. Macroinvertebrate drift samples were collected over a three year period in the Columbia . River downstream from Bonneville Dam. Samples were collected with a D-ring plankton net fished on the bottom for one-half hour. Two sites were sampled; Ives Island (RKM 230), from 1987 through 1989, and Lady Island (RKM 193), in 1988 and 1989.

This paper traces the history of Oregon Trout, an environmental organization in Portland, Oregon, from its beginning in the fall of 1983 through the spring of 1990, when it filed petitions on behalf of four stocks of Columbia and Snake River salmon under the Endangered Species Act. It focuses on Oregon Trout's efforts to preserve the wild salmon of the Columbia River as a contemporary example of anglers acting as environmentalists to conserve threatened or endangered species. According to historian John Reiger in American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation, hunters and anglers have been acting in this role in the United States since the Civil War, well before the Progressive Era in which the conservation movement is generally thought to have originated. However, the paper contends that Oregon Trout's advocacy for the interests of fish rather than fishermen is unique in the tradition to which Reiger points.

The Pacific Salmon Treaty was established by Canada and the United States to secure sustainability of salmon harvests within the Pacific Northwest. Renewed in June 1999, the treaty functions to legitimize and empower the Pacific Salmon Commission as the agent of fishery sustainability. The Pacific Salmon Commission serves as a bilateral recommendation-making body. Through its formal and informal, communications, the commission suggests action and defines regional salmon policy. Over the past decade pressures related to overharvest, changing oceanic conditions, and an increasing demand for production have challenged the commission and the fishery as never before. The Pacific Salmon Treaty was officially signed into existence in 1985. It was supposed to be re-ratified in 1992. This did not occur. From 1992 until 1999 numerous ratification processes were attempted, all but one failed. During this time tensions mounted and expressed frustrations nearly prompted overt violence. In August 1997 Canadian fishermen angered at the lack of a solution blockaded a U.S. passenger ferry thrusting the issue onto the world stage. In response to the crisis Canada and the U.S. empowered a joint commission to find resolution. While the resultant Strangway-Ruckelshaus Initiative proved to be a failure, its findings paved the way for eventual re-ratification. The Pacific Salmon Treaty exists because salmon within the Pacific Northwest represent different but simultaneous values within rooted world view orientations. The respective political cultures of Canada and the U.S. have sustained administrative regimes consistent with their dominant understanding of salmon and its values. Divergent cultural expectations and shared economic pressures have sustained conflict over the fishery and led to political and economic uncertainty. The Pacific Salmon Treaty is a work in progress. Understanding the treaty's context, historical development and function is vital for the sustainability of the fishery. The recent ratification of the Pacific Salmon Treaty represents an evolution in shared resource management. Based upon an "abundance-based management" regime the 1999 agreement provides the Pacific Salmon Commission with more discretionary capacity. However, the new pact may prove to be incomplete in form and function because of contradictory world view orientations. This research suggests that an emphasis on struggle management instead of conflict avoidance coupled with an enhanced bilateral commitment to the sustainability of the fishery may prove most helpful for the long-term outlook of the salmon. It also suggests that it is simply too early to tell whether this most recent attempt can or will "save the salmon." / Graduation date: 2001

This paper provides probit estimates of willingness to pay for Snake River salmon recovery projects using the contingent value survey method. Two types of survey method are tested, the direct question format and the randomized response format. Additionally, both an increase in electric bill payments and volunteer time are offered as payment vehicles. The results suggest that there is not much difference in estimates of willingness to pay between the two survey formats. They also suggest that for the Oregon State University staff, there is substantial willingness to pay through electric bill increases but not in volunteer time. By guaranteeing the respondents anonymity, the randomized response format is hypothesized to encourage more truthful answers, thereby reducing yea-saying bias. The results indicate that yea-saying may be reduced for those who contribute to environmental causes but overall does not affect willingness to pay. Other studies using the randomized response format that show a reduction in yea-saying and willingness to pay were done in classroom settings while this survey was a mail survey. There is an indication that the privacy and anonymity of the mail survey is enough to mitigate social pressure and yea-saying as opposed to a classroom setting. This suggests that the randomized response format may be more appropriate for group surveys or personal interview surveys. The result that there is substantial monetary support in the form of an increase in electric bills but not in the form of volunteer time payments may be due to the sample being fully employed. Also Snake River salmon restoration projects may seem geographically distant to this sample so volunteer activities may seem unrealistic. / Graduation date: 1998

Conventional fisheries management has appeared to be at odds with the rights of Native people in the Province of British Columbia. At the same time many Native Bands want to focus on the salmon fishery for economic and cultural revival. The combination of these two factors with growing management problems for the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has, for some Bands resulted in efforts toward cooperative management (co-management) of the resource. This thesis analyzes the outcomes of efforts towards co-management of one Band (Ditidaht, at Nitinaht Lake), and evaluates its effectiveness in the early stages of implementation. The thesis includes both a literature review and a case study that describes the Band's efforts at local control in light of their developing property rights, made stronger by recent court cases. It also describes how the DFO has responded to these developments, and how both groups attempted to keep the process directed toward improved fisheries management. The literature review reveals that while there are a number of advantages to the practice of co-management over conventional systems, there also a number of challenges that face local groups attempting this practice. The case study focuses particular attention on how the Ditidaht Band has responded to these challenges. Strategies used by the Ditidaht Band and the DFO, in response to increasing property;. . rights of the Band, to better manage the salmon fishery and to overcome barriers to the exercise of co-management are documented and analyzed. These strategies have generally evolved from concern for the conservation of salmon on the part of both parties. For the Ditidaht these strategies also involved a search for economic development opportunities. Outcomes of the efforts of the two parties are also analyzed in terms of propositions about co-management set out in the literature. It is concluded that the DFO has been reluctant to grant the Ditidaht control over fisheries management functions and appear to have done so done so reluctantly, and only as a result of recent court cases. Because of this Ditidaht input has been kept to a minimum and basically only involves enforcement. As for the Ditidaht Band, it has not taken full advantage of alliances with other parties as a mechanism for enhancing its control over the resource. The Band has also generally not responded to the importance of internal cohesion by establishing a forum for solving disputes over allocation. They have also failed to see the importance of using public concern for conservation as a strategic tool. The case study highlights the importance of looking beyond short-term interests, in this case economic development, in order to become self-sufficient in the long-term.

Canadian fisheries are in crisis. On both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, stories abound of fisheries closures or failures and coastal communities in difficulty. A new approach to fisheries policy is required, one which recognises the intrinsic value of all participants in the fisheries ecosystem and is capable of providing guidance on how to make policy decisions. The principles of environmental ethics provide a framework for developing justice-based fisheries policies. The environmental ethics literature is first explored, with special attention to fisheries issues. From this review, a justice-based framework is identified, in which five types of justice are viewed as pertinent to fisheries concerns. This framework is then translated into an assessment tool, based upon the Rapfish method for rapid appraisal of fisheries and using a set of justice-based ethical criteria. These criteria are evaluated and, through a paired comparison survey, further explored. An assessment of a range of Canadian marine fisheries is conducted using these ethical criteria. Subsequently, a modified Rapfish assessment, using the original criteria supplemented with additional customised criteria, is conducted for Aboriginal fisheries for Pacific salmon in British Columbia. Additionally, a study is conducted which explores preferences regarding the abundance and diversity of fisheries ecosystems. Finally, the commercial fishery for Pacific salmon in British Columbia is presented as a case study. The Rapfish assessment results are presented, and considerations as to how to operationalise just policies for this fishery are suggested. Recommendations include: balancing the composition of the commercial fleet, based upon ecological impacts of the various gear types; encouragement of local stewardship and community involvement; and inclusion of various forms of knowledge in fisheries management and decision-making.

Managing a common property resource, especially one jointly owned by two nations, is a formidable problem as it involves both incentives to cooperate and incentives to cheat. Often conflicts flare up, followed by efforts of reconciliation, which are interrupted again by new conflicts. A classic example of this is the Pacific salmon fishery, which is jointly harvested by the U.S.A and Canada. To understand the nature of this conflict, and to make policy recommendations, a game-theoretic approach is developed in this thesis.