How fisheries policies in British Columbia in the early twentieth century became tools for racial exclusion of Japanese Canadian fishermen under the banner of protection, and what their experiences can teach us today.
In early 20th-century British Columbia, salmon conservation policies were closely tied to Anti-Asian sentiment. Under the guise of protecting fish stocks, government officials pushed policies to exclude Japanese Canadians from the fishing industry. Dr. Benjamin Bryce examines how race, environment, and policy came together to shape BC’s fisheries.
“Japanese Internment and dispossession in Canada during World War II had a long history, not only the result of wartime anxiety. It drew from decades of anti-Japanese discrimination in British Columbia.”
Key Findings
- In early 20th-century British Columbia, salmon fisheries’ management was tightly intertwined with racial discrimination. Despite being citizens and vital to the industry, Japanese Canadian fishers faced reduced access to licences, legal restrictions, and growing hostility from white fishermen.
- Salmon fisheries became a battleground for resource control and for defining who was welcome in Canada as exclusionary practices were shaped both by fears of environmental depletion and white nationalism.
- Japanese Canadian fishers pushed back on this discrimination with legal petitions. In 1928, a Supreme Court case ruled that the province could not give priority to some British subjects over others.
Recommendations
- Conservation and environmental protection policies in B.C. should be designed with explicit attention to racial justice and social justice.
- Fishing policies must also consider the community needs and fishing practices of historically marginalized or discriminated groups.
Implications for Current Events
On August 7, 2025, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Cowichan Nation’s aboriginal right to fish on the south arm of the Fraser River.[1] After more than 10 years of legal battles, the Cowichan First Nation is now able to legally return to the lands that they had fished prior to colonial restrictions. The British Columbia Supreme Court’s recent ruling calls contemporary attention to the ongoing challenges associated with communities’ right to water and fishing—rights long suppressed by settler colonial states. Going back more than a century, very similar battles for fishing rights were ongoing. At the time, it was Japanese Canadian fishermen in British Columbia who were stripped of access to fisheries in favour of white fishers, all under the guise of salmon conservation. Japanese Canadian fishers in the 20th century and First Nations’ ongoing fights today show us that regulation is never neutral.
[1] Ollek, Maya, Brodie Noga, and Moira Kelly, “Cowichan Tribes: Court Reaffirms Flexible Approach to Aboriginal Right to Fish,” JFK Law LLP, September 11, 2025, https://jfklaw.ca/cowichan-tribes-court-affirms-flexible-approach-to-aboriginal-right-to-fish/
About the Authors
Benjamin Bryce is an Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on migration and health in the Americas. At UBC, he teaches courses on global history, migration, imperialism, and anticolonialism. He is also chair of the Latin American Studies program (2022-2027). Beyond UBC, Bryce is the digital editor of the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (2025-27), the curator of the virtual museum BridgeToArgentina.com, and a fellow at the Lateinamerika-Institut at the Freie Universität in Berlin, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2023-26).
Zixi (Peter) Zhang is a PhD student in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia. He studies early modern East Asia with a focus on China. His current research centers on the Chinese intellectual diaspora during the Ming-Qing transition in the seventeenth century.
Original Research
Benjamin Bryce, Japanese Exclusion and Environmental Conservation in the BC Salmon Fisheries, 1900-1930, Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, Issue 3, Autumn 2022, Pages 267–292, https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whac033
Copyright: UBC Centre for Migration Studies
Availability: Web & Print
Publication date: December 3, 2025
Pages: 3
This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.