Shifting salmon policy
Photo by Alex Harris.
Ecosystems are complex. They are communities of living organisms connected through interacting processes and features on the land, in water, and between the two. Yet BC’s antiquated environmental policy doesn’t reflect this. Colonial society governs ecosystems by siloing them into distinct ministries and resources instead of reflecting the interconnected nature of habitats that make them function in the living world. This “siloed decision making”is the root cause of many of the ecological challenges we face today.
Our policy goals
1. Manage fisheries for ecosystems
- Set salmon harvest at levels that optimize the benefits of spawning salmon to watersheds and wildlife.
- Shift away from historic management paradigms that minimize the number of spawning salmon reaching rivers and maximize harvest (called Maximum Sustainable Yield). Move towards fisheries management that meets salmon spawning targets that are ecologically based, not harvest-based.
- Shift harvest toward selective terminal fisheries (conducted in or near the rivers of origin) that respect the ‘place-based’ nature of salmon, and optimize the benefits to ecosystems, Indigenous cultures, and local communities.
2. Implement ecological-based governance
- Conservation planning and a commitment to sustainability that looks 7 generations ahead.
- A “whole-of-government” approach that implements shared solutions by Indigenous, federal, provincial, and municipal governments to achieve salmon recovery from inland watersheds and rivers, to the open ocean.
- Governance that honours Aboriginal rights and title, inherent Indigenous jurisdiction and law, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
- Sustainable funding strategies for watershed-scale restoration and planning.
3. Advance land-use policies that prioritize the health of wild salmon and biodiversity
- Zoning that bolsters functioning watersheds and riparian habitat (i.e.protect natural features, limit impervious surfaces, reduce urban sprawl, adopt nature-based solutions).
- Forestry policy that prioritizes salmon health by restricting clear-cutting in salmon watersheds, and incentivizes a sustainable, second or third-growth forest economy.
- Climate adaptation policy that incentivizes nature-based solutions including natural shorelines, intact riparian areas, unrestricted floodplains, managed retreat, and use of rain-gardens in urban areas.
Our recent reports
Recent articles
Message In A Bottle
Island Tides, November 11, 2010
As part of an effort to understand ocean currents, and how they would influence the movement of a potential oil spill, scientists from IOS recently teamed up with the Gitga’at and Raincoast to drop ‘drift’ bottles…
Raincoast responds to industry criticism of sea lice paper
Raincoast biologist Michael Price responds to criticism from the fish farm industry leveled against his peer-reviewed paper recently published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences…
Evidence of farm-induced parasite infestations on wild juvenile salmon in multiple regions of coastal BC, Canada
M.H.H. Price, A. Morton, and J.D. Reynolds. 2010. Evidence of farm-induced parasite infestations on wild juvenile salmon in multiple regions of coastal British Columbia, Canada. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 67: 1925–1932 Download the paper Price etal 2010 Farm-induced lice infestations CJFAS 2010
Sea lice from fish farms infect wild juvenile salmon in multiple regions
Today, the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences published findings by Raincoast and other researchers on sea lice infestations of wild juvenile salmon near salmon farms…
Enbridge faces strong opposition from Heiltsuk
Representatives for Enbridge were in Bella Bella to present their case for the Northern Gateway pipeline. Raincoast’s Doug Brown, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation, was at the event…
Top Carnivore
Seaside Times
November 2010
By Chris Genovali
As Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s senior scientist, Dr. Paul Paquet plays a crucial role in our research and conservation efforts…