Addressing the systemic, anthropogenic threats causing the decline of wild salmon
Our Wild Salmon Program is focused on ensuring that wild salmon in BC thrive across their historic landscape at abundance levels that sustain wildlife.
Wild salmon in British Columbia are at a critical crossroads. Within the Fraser River alone, record low numbers of Chinook, sockeye, and steelhead have returned to spawn in the last few years, as well as low abundances of coho and chum. More than half of the Fraser River salmon populations are now threatened or endangered.
Fraser River salmon are experiencing cumulative effects — which include overharvest, habitat loss and its incumbent siloed decision making, hatcheries, and a commodity-centric approach to salmon management. These threats are compounded by the recent approval of Roberts Bank Terminal 2, a megaport project that is slated to be built in the heart of the Fraser River Estuary. This project will have permanent and irreversible effects on threatened populations of Fraser Chinook salmon and the endangered Southern Resident killer whales that rely on them. It is clear that wildlife, ecosystems, and people are all experiencing the repercussions from this scale of threats and corresponding collapse.
There is an urgent need to address the systemic, anthropogenic threats causing the decline of wild salmon, however, neither the province nor the federal government are stepping up to do so. This work is falling to conservation NGOs and First Nations communities. Over the last decade, Raincoast has advanced the recovery of wild salmon through multiple approaches.
Raincoast’s Wild Salmon Program
Raincoast’s Wild Salmon Program, initiated in 2006, is focused on ensuring that wild salmon in British Columbia thrive across their historic landscape at abundance levels that sustain wildlife. We conduct habitat restoration, champion estuary protection, undertake policy analysis, further fisheries reform, lead field research, and advance Indigenous-led governance structures to address the primary threats facing the persistence and recovery of wild salmon. The success of our work is rooted in collaboration with Indigenous Nations, government agencies, academics, NGOs, industry, and community groups.
This briefing highlights our current work and provides a look into the future. This work covers initiatives from habitat restoration in the Fraser Estuary, to preventing unsustainable fisheries, reviewing funding landscapes, and building frameworks for Indigenous-led and ecosystem- based solutions. Collectively, this work is putting salmon and their habitats on a path to recovery.
Fisheries management
Raincoast engages in technical aspects of salmon management, fisheries harvest, and salmon recovery planning. We work to implement place-based salmon management that is sustainable for ecosystems, protects salmon from overfishing, and considers associated wildlife.
Our work addresses industrial fisheries that target mixed stocks, occur on the rearing grounds of immature fish, and drive the demand for hatchery salmon. As part of the Marine Conservation Caucus (MCC), a collaborative group of scientists and conservationists from nine member organizations that focus on fisheries, Raincoast represents salmon interests in federal planning and management processes.
We will continue with our annual analysis, reviews, and critiques of fishing plans and advocate for alternatives to unsustainable fishing. We are currently commenting on 2023 management plans and proposals regarding endangered Chinook salmon. We will also examine the spatial extent of mixed stock fisheries and their interception of stocks of concern. We will also publish results of research examining the effects of fishing pressure on Chinook salmon age structure and size, and what this could mean for Chinook recovery and for the endangered Southern Resident killer whales that rely on them. We envision a sustainable, ecosystem-based fishery of wild salmon and our work is in pursuit of this goal.
The Lower Fraser River Salmon Conservation Program
The Lower Fraser Salmon Conservation Program, initiated in 2016, takes a place-based approach to address threats to salmon and their habitats. Our work in the Lower Fraser River region employs diverse strategies that include research and restoration, and advance policies and governance models that prioritize ecological approaches to planning. This includes the legal principles of Indigenous Nations.
Our past work has identified systemic problems from existing conventional management that have resulted in extensive freshwater habitat loss in the Lower Fraser Region. Resolving these problems requires a new paradigm for conservation and decision-making, one that is (1) ecosystem based, (2) advanced within the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and (3) is supported by long-term funding. We are working to shift governance away from the status quo and towards a shared vision for salmon management that is rooted in community collaboration and engagement.



Habitat restoration and monitoring in the Fraser River Estuary
Following three years of data collection on the patterns of juvenile salmon movements in the estuary, Raincoast began restoration activities in 2019. We started by placing breaches in the man-made barriers that prevent the natural migration of juvenile salmon into the estuary. For example, the 8 km Steveston jetty on the main arm of the Fraser River, blocked juvenile salmon from the salt marsh on Sturgeon Bank for more than a century.
Monitoring of our breaches shows significant juvenile salmon passage by all five salmon species. This work is increasing access to salmon habitats that are crucial for young salmon, aiding their survival to future life stages and the recovery of wild salmon populations.
We are working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Ducks Unlimited to open more areas of the estuary for juvenile salmon. We will also begin a project to address the erosion of marsh on Sturgeon Bank by returning sediment dredged from the Fraser River back to the marsh.


Interactions between wild and hatchery salmon
Despite millions of dollars invested in hatcheries, and millions of salmon fry released annually, salmon catches have declined and wild salmon are in more trouble than ever.
Growing evidence from studies in Canada and the US suggest that an overabundance of hatchery fish is creating an environment with steep competition for limited food resources. In the Fraser, evidence suggests that the survival of Fraser salmon declines when hatchery releases increase.
The next phase of our work in the Fraser River Estuary explores this interaction between wild and hatchery Chinook salmon. We hope to gain a better understanding of potential competition in the early marine stage and ultimately, bring more knowledge to the effect hatcheries and hatchery fish might have on wild Fraser salmon populations and their recovery.
Assessing water quality in salmon habitat
The quality and quantity of water is vital for the survival of salmon. Due to the extensive industrial, urban, and agricultural development around the Lower Fraser River, water quality has been degraded in important salmon habitat for decades.
The innate link between salmon resilience and water quality is captured in Raincoast’s Healthy Waters program. This initiative is building a community-oriented water pollution monitoring capacity that brings data to the conversation of water quality and its suitability as habitat for salmon and whales.
The catastrophic floods of late 2021 in southern British Columbia (Canada) and neighbouring Washington State (USA) destroyed homes, farms, and businesses, with excess water spilling debris, animal carcasses, and diesel fuel into historically productive fish habitat.
In collaboration with our partners, including: Sumas First Nation, the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, S’ólh Téméxw Stewardship Alliance, and the Pacific Salmon Foundation, we assessed water quality in the former Semá:th ̱Xó:tsa (Sumas Lake) area of the Fraser Valley over a seven-week period after the floods.
We collected water samples from 11 surface water sites and 4 groundwater sites for comprehensive contaminant analysis and a subsequent risk-based evaluation. We measured 379 pollutants and found excess nutrients, metals, fecal coliform, hydrocarbons, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, perfluorinated compounds, sucralose, and tire-related chemicals.
We are advancing our Healthy Waters program with our Indigenous, NGO, and local government partners to monitor water spanning from source to the Salish Sea. In the Lower Fraser River, we are working with Sumas Nation to establish a regular water quality monitoring program in several priority watercourses on reserve and across the Nation’s territory. Water sampling will occur each season to gather data on contaminants of concern to fish health and community wellbeing.
Policy and governance for the Lower Fraser River
To help address the systemic drivers behind salmon conservation problems in the Lower Fraser, the Lower Fraser Working Group has been identifying options for Indigenous-led, co-governed, and community-driven governance frameworks that are guided by science. Such an approach is fundamental to designing a system that fosters long-term ecological resilience for the species and people that rely on the Lower Fraser.
After the severe flooding of November 2021, the Lower Fraser Working Group pivoted to address increased flood risk by identifying nature-based solutions guided by the Revitalizing Indigenous Law for Land, Air and Water (RELAW) project.
Our multidisciplinary research examines (1) flood recovery options in the context of climate change and also, (2) the intentional dispossession of Sumas Lake from Indigenous peoples and its draining in the early 1900s. We suggest that, instead of maintaining the “Sumas Prairie” in its current state, we restore Sumas Lake under what is called ‘managed retreat’, which purposefully moves people, farms, and businesses from areas vulnerable to hazards.
According to our estimates, the cost of this would be $3 billion (vs. the $9 billion to “build back better”), with $1 billion allocated for the purchase of land and buildings assessed in the current market. This work was captured in an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail, and the full paper has been submitted for publication in an academic journal.
Funding for habitat restoration in the Lower Fraser River
To better understand the conservation and restoration ‘funding landscape’ of the Lower Fraser River, Raincoast determined the scale and scope of financial investments in aquatic habitat restoration, conservation, and stewardship projects that have occurred over the last decade. We published our report, ‘The restoration and conservation funding landscape of the Lower Fraser River’ in September 2022.
This quantitative baseline determined that $91.6 million were invested in 482 projects that predominantly benefitted the recovery of salmon populations. Yet, we also found that investments were often not publicly accessible, were uncoordinated, and inequitably distributed to Indigenous Nations or other marginalized communities.
Notably, of the $91.6 million invested in salmon habitat and conservation projects, only $18 million, or 20%, was provided to Indigenous Nations or Indigenous-led organizations as either direct recipients or grant partners. Further, only 8.3%, or 37 projects out of the total 482, had Indigenous Nations or Indigenous-led organizations as project leads.
Another gap identified by the report is that no federal funding programs explicitly required, or provided resources for, post-project monitoring during the study period. The report concludes with several recommendations to address this gap, including making funding data publicly available in a centralized database, increasing the scale of funding available for staff capacity, transitioning towards a community-informed approach, and establishing an overarching management plan for the Lower Fraser River and Estuary.
In summer 2023, we will publish the ‘Exploring Modes of Funding and Governance Case Studies for the Lower Fraser River’ report. Importantly, this report defines characteristics of sustainable funding and good governance. Case studies that are most applicable to the Lower Fraser region will be highlighted. This research will be the third piece in a series of funding and policy-focused reports aimed at increasing sustainable funding and equitable governance opportunities for salmon habitat in the Lower Fraser River Region.
We will also be publishing two additional reports in 2023, including one focused on nature-based solutions policies in local governments, and another on the application of legal personhood status to the Fraser River Estuary, and how this could advance conservation.
Engagement with the Metro Vancouver Task Force
In 2022, Raincoast was requested to support Metro Vancouver staff in the development of a convening process with all levels of government. The goal of this initiative is to identify opportunities to advance a regional management body for Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River Estuary, and Boundary Bay. Raincoast staff provided research support and policy analysis for Metro Vancouver, which resulted in a summary report provided to intergovernmental staff and other stakeholders.
In partnership with the Martin Conservation Decisions Lab and Environment and Climate Change Canada, we will conduct research on the funding landscape of the entire Fraser River watershed. Funding programs that have provided resources for projects focused on water quality will be identified and analyzed according to recipient, scope and scale, Indigenous engagement, and completion of long-term monitoring. This research will be published in a report in summer 2023.
Raincoast’s Wild Salmon team
Misty MacDuffee, Wild Salmon Program Director
Kristen Walters, Lower Fraser Salmon Conservation Program Director
Dave Scott, Lower Fraser Research and Restoration Coordinator and PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia
Auston Chhor, Governance and Policy Analyst
Dr. Allison Dennert, Quantitative Salmon Ecologist
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
