Figure 1 - Wild Sockeye salmon

Importance of Salmon

British Columbia is one of the top salmon fishing destinations in the world, especially for the local Indigenous communities. Each year, 10’s of millions of these highly sought-after fish migrate up to local British Columbian rivers to return to their spawning grounds where they were once born. Salmon have evolved over eons to be interdependent with all the elements of their environment. In their niche, salmon declines affect forests, wildlife, and the entire ecosystem. The fact that wild salmon carries nutrients from the river to the sea and back again, this fertilizes much of B.C.’s forest ecosystems. Moreover, salmon are vital in the food chain, with 137 species relying on salmon as part of their diet (FBC, 2011).

A decline in the population

As important as salmon is for the country, Canada is facing serious problems in terms of salmon population. Every year since 1980 to 2014, returns of adult sockeye salmon has averaged 9.6 million where 28 million was the highest and 2 million was the lowest return. Based on the environmental research, it was predicted that in 2020 only 941,000 salmon would return. However, the returns were so low in the summer of 2020 that the commission had to update their previous projections and change it to only 283,000 adult salmon in 2020. This was the lowest return ever recorded (Wood, 2020). Many First Nation communities and their leaders showed concerns when this update was made, as salmon plays an important role in their lives. Salmon is not only part of their ceremonies and histories, but they are also integral to their food security initiatives. Young people from these communities have inherited fishing practices from their elders, which they cannot pursue anymore because of the massive decline in the population.

Following is the yearly data for sockeye returns:

Figure 2 – Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Salmon Commission – 2020

Factors behind the decline:

• Lice and salmon farms:

During the migration, wild salmon pass many fish farms, and those fish farms are often infested with sea lice which directly affects the migrating salmons. Sea lice can damage a salmon’s fins and scales which can cause a lot of bleeding. The death rates are higher in juvenile salmon infected by sea lice. This was then proven in a study done by Alexandra Morton and Rick Routledge, where almost 98% of juvenile pink salmon with mature louse died. (Morton & Routledge, 2005).

• Climate Change:
  With rising temperatures, the river and ocean temperatures are getting warmer as well, which can have negative impacts on a salmon and its growth. Warmer waters mean more California sea lions on B.C.’s coast which along with booming seal population, means salmon are facing more predators (Wood, 2020). While temperatures above 25 degrees will kill salmon, temperature above 18 degrees alter the behavior of adult salmon, making it harder for them to swim, escape predators or dig their nests. Whereas the food for salmon is reducing because of warmer conditions. Apart from not getting enough to eat, higher temperatures in the river also causes stress in the fish and salmon can die before even reaching their spawning grounds. Changes in temperature also means changing in precipitation, and when this happens, it can cause natural disasters like major landslides which can damage a freshwater habitat.

• Big Bar landslide:
  Speaking of landslides, this landslide happened in 2018 that blocked virtually all the natural migration route of the Fraser sockeye. This has been the biggest factor in the decline of salmon species. About 99% of the early Stuart did not make it past the landslide to their spawning grounds. A total of only 493,000 sockeye salmons returned in 2019 when 4.8 million had been forecasted in the year.

•  Forest Fires:
  2017 and 2018 were both record-setting forest fire years in the province, and currently there are a total of 1,453 active fires (ArcGIS, 2021). As devastating it already is, massive fires can result in the lack of tree cover and changes to the soil, this makes the land more vulnerable and there are chances for increased runoff, slope instability, and erosion, all contributing to more sediment entering streams, damaging the spawning habitat for the salmon. Forest fires also destroy riparian vegetation and because of this there is no shade for the waterways, which again increases the water temperatures and stress wild salmon (Wood, 2020).

What is being done to improve this situation?

In June 2021, Federal government outlined a $647M plan to save the collapsing Pacific salmon stocks and this plan is also considered the largest and most transformative salmon investment in history (Larsen, 2021). The main purpose of this plan is to work towards the conservation and stewardship, hatcheries, harvest transformation and integrated management, to achieve a long-term sustainable fishery on the west coast and Yukon.

What can be done to?

Although salmon are a resilient species but how much closer to the brink can we push them before there is no coming back? While climate change is a global issue, it depends on us individually how we play our part. We need to swiftly tackle the threats to salmon that we have immediate control over. We can tackle these threats by investing more of our resources in protecting, restoring, and reconnecting habitats, getting salmon farms out of the water to reduce sea lice damage, safer fishing approaches and hatchery production, and better monitoring so we can fully understand the status of the different salmon populations.