The San Juan Islands, in the heart of the Salish Sea, have been a fishing destination since time immemorial. From Coast Salish reef netting and tideland harvesting to the era of fish traps, purse seining, and gill netting, follow the many communities of fishers and their catches to understand the present-day seascape of the San Juan Archipelago.

This book is a history of fishing in the Salish Sea in general and the San Juan Islands in particular. By fishing, I mean both the literal act of catching fish and the harvesting of sea animals and plants for all manner of use, along with all the related subjects such as transportation, processing, and marketing. Fishing, in this sense, includes mariculture, or the cultivation of marine organisms such as shellfish. The period covered by this history extends from the first human presence in the region to the present. According to some anthropologists, settlement in the region first occurred about 14,000 years ago; some Indigenous peoples aver that they have been here from time immemorial.