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Disaster
at Hell's Gate:
A Salmon Fishery in Ruins
Bounty on the Fraser
On a North American
coast that teemed with salmon,
and in an era that bustled
with close to a thousand shoreline
canneries, British Columbiaįs
Fraser River in 1900 was an
emblem of prosperity and abundance.
Using linen nets, working
from a 7.5 metre rowing skiff
in the pre- dawn darkness,
commercial fishermen made
legendary catches
. Pulling
in up to a thousand fish at
a time, the fishers sorted
though their haul, tossing
the Cohos, Chums, Pinks and
even the mighty Chinooks back
into the water. It was the
prized, red-fleshed sockeye
that they kept, leaving just
enough room in their slickened
boats to row themselves back
to the gutters, cleaners,
butchers and packers working
feverishly on the shore.
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Gulf
of Georgia National
Historic Site
At the
fishing community
of Steveston,
just 30 kilometres
south of Vancouver
on the coast of
British Columbia,
you can experience
cannery life of
the early twentieth
century. Take
a look at a turn
of the century
fishing skiff,
or imagine a 12
hour fish-gutting
shift at the čsliming
tableî in 1930.
Restored Gulf
of Georgia cannery
buildings, built
between 1894 and
1964, include
the main cannery,
icehouse, vitamin
oil shed, drum
storage shed,
watchmanįs house
and lead foundry.
Learn more about
the Gulf of Georgia
Cannery at www.historylands.com.
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Railway
Rock, Struggling Salmon
In the high spring
waters of 1913, the sockeye
migration to the Fraser River
was immense. Jubilant cannery
operators recorded a total
čpackî of 2.3 million cases
and despite the enormous catch,
the river was alive with fish
as it narrowed just north
of Yale at the famous Hellįs
Gate canyon.
But as summer approached,
and water levels dropped,
the jubilation turn to a shocking
realization that the Fraser
River salmon run was in trouble.
Rock and debris blasted from
construction of the Great
Canadian Northern Railway
on the eastern side of the
Canyon had been carelessly
hurled down to the river,
magnifying the current to
furious torrents and creating
new obstacles for the migrating
salmon. For the battered,
bleeding fish that managed
to leap past the tumbled rocks
and gigantic boulders, there
was little shelter in the
debris-filled upper pools
that had once offered respite
for the continuing journey.
Thousands of sockeye died
without spawning, their rotting
carcasses drifting downstream
along the bars and banks of
the lower river.
A River
Dammed
On the night of February
23, 1914, the weakened Fraser
River sockeye fishery collapsedú
completely and dramaticallyúwhen
a massive rock slide crashed
into the Fraser at Hellįs
Gate. A further 76,000 cubic
metres of debris instantly
narrowed the canyon to the
size of a creek. Water poured
in a mad, constricted torrent
through the small opening
of what was now no more than
a stream that drained the
accumulated waters of almost
80,000 square miles.
Despite immediate and often
heroic efforts on the part
of federal fisheries officers
to dredge the canyon, build
box flumes and even transfer
individual fish with the help
of aboriginal dip nets, the
Fraser River sockeye run had
been virtually destroyed.
By 1921, the recorded catch
had fallen to only 6% of its
1913 peak. Not until 1945,
when the Hellįs Gate Fishways
were opened, did the Fraser
River once again become a
salmon river.
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