The remote and little-known border dispute between the US and Canada that has lasted for more than a century

The nutrient-rich waters of Dixon Inlet - between British Columbia (Canada) and the Alaskan Panhandle (USA) - attract orcas, albatrosses and five species of salmon between the rocky shores and verdant forests of Prince Island. of Wales and the mainland.

At one point, while we were riding through the waves, we left Canadian waters and entered the United States.

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The only way we knew we had traveled from one country to another was by looking at our electronic devices going back 60 minutes, to Alaska Standard Time.

In fact, the actual line on which we cross from one country to another has long been in dispute.

Before European contact with nearby Indians, the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian peoples occasionally fought over land and sea boundaries in this abundant territory.

Today this boundary disagreement continues with new adversaries, and the treasure at the heart of this dispute has shifted from furs and gold to salmon fishing.

Although the United States and Canada have the longest undefended border in the world, the Dixon Gate is one of the four oldest border disputes between the friendly neighbors.

The roots of the conflict date back to the 18th century, a time when settler stakeholders in the Alaskan Panhandle (the narrow strip of mountains, fjords and channel islands bordering modern British Columbia) were England and Russia. , before it belonged to the United States.

The beginnings of the dispute

When the Russian fleet arrived in Alaska in 1732, it discovered that the area was rich in sea otters, and they established a fur trade with the local indigenous peoples.

In the 1760s, Captain James Cook arrived and began mapping and surveying the North Pacific for the English.

Then, in the early 1800s, American explorers Meriweather Lewis and William Clark found their way to the Pacific Northwest.

This set the stage for a territorial dispute.

The local indigenous population was soon overtaken by disease and warfare, and throughout the period of Russian colonization, the southern and eastern borders of the Alaskan Panhandle (or salient) were never firmly established.

The 1825 Treaty of St. Petersburg between England and Russia established the coastal border of the southern Panhandle near present-day Prince Rupert Port, British Columbia, but the region was so mountainous that much of it remained unexplored.

In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia.

A few years later, British Columbia joined Canada. Ottawa suggested Washington D.C. that it was time for an official survey of the Panhandle so that the two countries could agree on the border, but the United States considered the effort too costly for such remote terrain.

Then gold was discovered and things changed.

Finds first occurred in British Columbia and then in 1897 in the Klondike, in Canada's Yukon Northwest Territory.

An estimated 100,000 migrants arrived in the area, and it turned out that one of the easiest ways to reach the gold fields was to travel by sea through the Dixon Inlet, into the fjords, and then inland through the Panhandle.

Canada wanted unimpeded travel to its territory, but the United States was not prepared to give up any of the land it had recently deemed too insignificant to map.

The countries tried to reach a resolution, but in 1899 they were deadlocked. And in 1903 an international tribunal was formed to settle the Alaskan border dispute.

Composed of six impartial jurists from the US, Canada, and England, the group ended up setting Alaska's eastern boundary 35 miles east of where the ocean meets the continental shoreline.

The southern boundary, known as the AB line, runs from Cape Muzon, the southernmost point of Alaska's Dall Island, directly east through Dixon Inlet to the Portland Channel, where it meanders around a few islands before heading up the Portland Channel and toward the Coast Mountains.

Canada was outraged by some aspects of the decision, but another problem soon arose.

Pacific salmon

As far as Canada was concerned, the AB line was the division between the nations, on land and sea.

But the United States had a different opinion: it stated that the decision only concerned the land border, and that according to maritime law, the maritime limit was actually 20 km south of the line, halfway across Dixon entrance.

This disagreement continues today.

Currently, some 1.5 million people navigate through the disputed border each year.

It may seem strange that two close allies still cannot compromise on the ownership of this 80 km wide and 50 km long narrow passage for the sake of easier international relations.

But there's a good reason: Pacific salmon.

The abundant fish and their annual trip have made fishing a key industry in the economy of the Pacific Northwest.

From the 1880s to the 1950s, more than 100 fishing villages and canneries sprang up throughout British Columbia, and in recent years, the province's wild salmon have been exported to 53 different countries.

In this aquatic gold rush, the Dixon Inlet is the jackpot: Five species of salmon flow through it: sockeye, coho, chinook, chum and pink, each returning from the ocean with the intention of reaching its river of origin in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington or Oregon, where they spawn and die.

There, to meet the salmon each year on their journey home, there are two groups of boats that follow two kinds of laws.

With no mutually agreed border, fishermen from both countries try to catch their share of salmon in disputed waters.

The ongoing clash results in a simmering battle that occasionally boils over, much like the so-called “salmon wars” that pitted Canadian and Alaskan fishermen against each other in the 1990s.

The Salmon Owners

Since the 1930s, the United States and Canada have tried to determine who "owns" which salmon.

This is a precise and opaque concept in equal measure: Because each salmon returns not just to a specific river, but to a precise place in the river, unregulated fishing has led to the local extinction of some salmon runs. In some cases that has destroyed the indigenous fishing industry.

Standing on the edge of the Adam River last November, nearly 1,500 km southeast of Dixon Inlet, Tanner Francois of the Secwepemc Nation sang a song about salmon, thanking the fish for making the long and perilous journey back to their homes. spawning areas.

The annual migration through Dixon Inlet that sends salmon into the rivers that flow through much of British Columbia has given salmon a central place in the minds of First Nation people and in the psyche of many. inhabitants of the region.

Making a round trip of up to 4,000 km from rivers and headwaters, offshore and back again, salmon feed not only the economy, but also the orcas, bears and eagles that depend on the rivers.

And they, in turn, feed the forest.

“We wouldn't be without salmon,” Francois explains.

Therefore, people clean and clear streams and rivers to protect salmon.

The school children receive lessons at their local salmon hatcheries and release the newly hatched fry into the rivers each spring.

The indigenous people sing to the salmon through rivers and mountains. And the fishermen of Dixon Inlet keep a careful eye on their section of the ocean, ever on the lookout for border violations, ready to call a hotline to settle a diplomatic dispute.

Meanwhile, salmon swim below it all, oblivious to the politics of borders and boundaries.

Above the waves, cruise ship and ferry passengers also pass oblivious.

They marvel at the scenery and life, the snow-capped peaks, the green velvet mountains reaching for the sky, the waterfalls, the sea otters, the orcas, the seabirds and the bears, not realizing that all is well and good. perfectly connected by the salmon that swim in the depths.

You can read this article in English on BBC Travel.

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