The Nature of Borders: Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea

摘要

As the title of this impressive study implies, although the international border between Canada and the United States runs invisibly through the waters of the "Salish Sea," that border "is very much there, and it has played a critical role in the history of the Pacific salmon fishery that straddles it" (p. 6). The study is focused on the history of the salmon stocks and fisheries of the Fraser River system. Although the entire length of this very productive salmon stream is in Canada, depending on the year, a large portion of its salmon migrate through United States waters on their way to their spawning beds. In an introduction and seven chapters, Wadewitz explores the "nature of borders," from the time before the arrival of Europeans, when Native borders influenced salmon exploitation, to the end of World War I, when failed international efforts to protect salmon had dangerously endangered the salmon stocks of the river. A short conclusion-an epilogue really-sums up developments from World War I to the present. Environmental historians (as well as other historians) should welcome this book as a significant and nuanced contribution to the field.