The Fraser is one of the world’s greatest salmon rivers. Despite the Lower Fraser representing only 5% of the entire watershed, it supports more than half of the watershed’s Chinook and chum, 65% of its coho, 80% of its pink, and significant populations of sockeye salmon.
I kneel in the stream holding up the seine net and begin combing through debris of leaves, sticks and small rocks, looking for flashes of silver amongst the dull colours.
The Great Bear Rainforest is home to over 2,500 salmon runs from more than 5,000 spawning populations. Many of these rivers are still intact, offering a unique opportunity to study the linkages between salmon and the larger food web. However, salmon in this region are faced with increasing threats, many of which have depressed and extirpated salmon populations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Some of our previous work to understand ecology, status of, and threats to coastal salmon populations is linked below.
Raincoast’s Chum and Coho Stream Ecology Project is part of a larger research program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) that focuses on the interactions between salmon and their environments.
With each step my foot sinks into a thick mat of woven moss and with each step I wonder whether there is anything beneath this mat to support my weight. I step cautiously, just in case, but I’m also trying to keep up with my partner, Chester Starr (the Lone Wolf), who moves swiftly through…