Uniting BC’s Salmon People
Raincoast, alongside our allies, is proud to support Salmon United, a new initiative bringing people together to advance a stronger future for Pacific salmon.
Pacific salmon are shared across ecosystems, jurisdictions, and international borders. Their conservation depends not only on the condition of freshwater habitat, but also on how fisheries are managed throughout their marine migration. Decisions made hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from a salmon’s natal river can influence whether it successfully returns to spawn.
For three decades now, Raincoast has worked to advance science-based conservation of Pacific salmon. That work has included habitat protection, research on salmon ecology, sustainable fisheries, and the recovery of species that depend on salmon, including Southern Resident killer whales. Increasingly, it has also highlighted the importance of improving how mixed-stock fisheries that intercept migrating salmon are managed across the North Pacific.
That is why Raincoast has joined Salmon United, a new coalition of conservation organizations, scientists, salmon advocates, and community partners working to improve conservation outcomes for Pacific salmon. Together with Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, the collaboration is focused on one shared objective: ensuring that more salmon successfully return to the rivers where they were born.
This work comes at an important moment. The Pacific Salmon Treaty, the primary agreement governing salmon fisheries between Canada and the United States, is entering another period of negotiation. These discussions present an opportunity to strengthen conservation measures, improve transparency and accountability, and better align fisheries management with advances in our understanding of climate change, stock identification, monitoring, and ecosystem science.
Many salmon originating from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon are harvested in mixed-stock ocean fisheries that intercept salmon before they reach their home waters. These fisheries operate along shared migration routes far from spawning rivers, often in jurisdictions outside the salmon’s place of origin. As a result, fish from healthy and depleted populations can be harvested together. As climate change, habitat loss, and changing ocean conditions place increasing pressure on wild salmon, reducing avoidable sources of mortality and improving management of individual salmon stocks becomes increasingly important.
Strong and diverse salmon populations are essential to the health of Pacific watersheds. Salmon transfer marine nutrients into freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. They support species from insects and birds to bears and Southern Resident killer whales; And when well managed, they sustain Indigenous cultures, coastal communities, and commercial, recreational, and food fisheries throughout the region.
Addressing the challenges salmon face requires coordinated action. Salmon United provides a platform for diverse voices to advocate for science-based reforms that would improve how salmon populations are managed across international boundaries.
We invite you to sign the Salmon United Declaration. The declaration calls for science-based reforms to domestic and international salmon policy; fairness, transparency, and accountability in fisheries management; management decisions that prioritize long-term ecosystem health; and coordinated protection of salmon habitat.
The declaration will build broad public support for better policies supporting salmon conservation, as governments prepare for upcoming Pacific Salmon Treaty negotiations. Together, these voices will show decision-makers that people across British Columbia expect policies that prioritize healthy salmon populations, thriving ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them.
By bringing together science, stewardship, and a broad coalition of people who care about wild salmon, Salmon United seeks to help more fish return home, now and for generations to come.
