Canada losing track of salmon health as climate and industrial threats mount

Canada is failing in a decades-old pledge to monitor the health of Pacific salmon, according to new research from Simon Fraser University. 

At a time when government policy is geared towards accelerating industrial development across sensitive B.C. watersheds, an SFU study published today in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences reports that monitoring of salmon spawning populations has dropped 32 per cent since Canada adopted its Wild Salmon Policy 20 years ago. 

The decline in publicly-available data means that scientists are unable to assess the well-being of nearly half (44 per cent) of Canada’s Pacific salmon populations. 

Of the five species assessed (Chinook, chum, coho, pink and sockeye), sockeye salmon suffer most from a lack of monitoring, with 58 per cent of Conservation Units (genetically and geographically distinct salmon populations) lacking sufficient data. 

“Canada committed to monitoring the health of wild salmon, yet our study shows that capacity to do so has eroded substantially,” says Michael Price, lead author of the study and adjunct professor in SFU’s Department of Biological Sciences.

Read more on SFU News.