Each nation has a commissioner. Legislation of the United States stipulates that the U.S. section must have one member from Alaska and one member from either Oregon or Washington, one representative of treaty tribes, and one non-voting federal official. The Canadian section is led by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and includes representatives from First Nations, recreational and commercial fisheries, and the British Columbia provincial government. The treaty also established several scientific and technical committees that provide the commission with essential data on the salmon stocks and fisheries. The two principles of the treaty are conservation and equity.
Conservation prevents overfishing and provides optimum production.
Equity provides each country with fishery benefits that are equivalent to the production of salmon from its own rivers, i.e., balanced interceptions of salmon by the two countries. The treaty improved the conservation and management of Pacific salmon. For example, migration routes of the fishes, interception patterns, and interception estimates are now better known. Sockeye stocks in the Fraser River in British Columbia have increased. The rebuilding of wild chinook stock in the lower Georgia Strait is attributed to fishery restrictions by Canada.