HABITAT PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION UNDER THE PACIFIC SALMON TREATY

The ongoing dispute between the United States and Canada over the allo cation of Pacific salmon stocks migrating through the waters of both c ountries is a world-class natural resources conflict. The Pacific Salm on Treaty adopted by the two countries in 1985, was intended to facili tate the common management of Pacific salmon through the pursuit of eq uitable sharing of the resource and conservation. However, the treaty has become dysfunctional because of continual feuding over sharp imbal ances in the rates of interceptions by each country of salmon originat ing in the rivers of the other. To this point, each country has focuse d primarily on the harvest allocation issue and has been particularly preoccupied with reserving as much of the salmon originating in its ow n rivers to its own harvest as possible. This note argues that Canada and the United States will continue to fail to achieve the two primary objectives of the Treaty if they do not take into account the importa nce of habitat protection and enhancement. This note explores practica l reasons for why the parties cannot ignore their obligation to conser ve habitat. The note then employs the living resources provisions of t he 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Pacifi c Salmon Treaty itself to argue that the Treaty, in fact, imposes a ha bitat protection and enhancement obligation on the parties.