Salmon

An Inuit, we are told, has several words for snow, although Dr. Stephen Pinker claims to have debunked this as a myth.
Whatever, let's just say they do, since I love snow and I would like to think that somewhere there is a society who differentiates between various forms of it.
Sasha Aikhenvald in any case, makes a completely different case.

Digredio.

Likewise, if you tell a Brit you had curry last night, they'll expect you to be more specific. Saying you had curry is like saying you had meat or vegetables.

And to Canadians in this part of the country, the same is true for salmon. I'm still slightly bemused by this, but then I haven't grown up with it. When I was very young, salmon came in tins and was generally served up in sandwiches between slices of processed white bread and accompanied by the crunch of cucumber.

Later, there was smoked salmon, salmon steaks, Scottish or Atlantic.

Here we have Chinook, Coho, Chum, Pink and Sockeye and the Sockeye, particularly, are causing great disagreement between the local First Nations bands and.....well, just about everyone else.
The local bands, the Musqueam, the Tsawassen, are allowed a certain number of fish for their 'band needs'.

Wha'ever.

Rumour has it that even when their quotas are able to be fulfilled, band members can be found flogging them off the backs of their SUVs.
Note how I managed to avoid any mention of bandwagons.

This year, numbers are too low to even feed the elders. Local fisherman are not allowed to fish them at all.
Sports fisherman have to throw them back.
It is generally agreed that that the fish need to be left alone in order to restore their numbers.
Local fishermen agree, but are miffed that First Nations bands are still allowed to fish.
First Nations agree - sort of - but say that Sports Fishermen should be banned from fishing them, which, in fact, they are, if they catch them by accident, and it's said they're not as easy to catch as other types, they have to throw them back.

And now, and now.....Americans have been annoying the Tsawassen band by fishing for Pink Salmon - of which there are plenty - and doing it in American not Canadian waters.

Pink salmon is the one apparently that ends up in tins, but it is also available, much more cheaply than other types, for cooking and to me, tastes pretty damn good.

It seems to me that the First Nations bands have rights that locals don't because they have always pushed their special relationship with nature and the circles and cycles of life. But they are making quite ridiculous statements about a fish which right now is seriously in danger of not being able to replenish its own stocks.

Sour grapes, dog in a manger.

The only good thing to come out of all this it seems to me, is the debate itself.