Canada is losing track of its wild salmon — just when we need that knowledge most

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael Price, Adjunct professor, Department of Biology, Simon Fraser University

Every year, Pacific salmon return from the ocean to the rivers and streams where they were born. These migrations nourish ecosystems, sustain Indigenous cultures and support fisheries that people across Western Canada rely on. Yet something essential has quietly eroded: Canada’s efforts to count wild salmon.

That loss of basic information matters. It becomes especially important at a time when major industrial decisions affecting salmon watersheds are being made more quickly, and with less ecological information than in the past.

Twenty years ago, Canada adopted its Wild Salmon Policy (WSP), a landmark commitment to conserve the genetic and geographic diversity of wild Pacific salmon. At its core was a simple promise: to regularly assess the health of distinct salmon populations so declines could be detected early, and recovery action taken when needed.

Our recent analysis of publicly reported monitoring data shows that this foundation is weakening. Since the WSP was introduced, the number of spawning populations counted each year has declined by roughly one-third, driven largely by the loss of high-quality surveys.

We now lack sufficient publicly available data on nearly half of Canada’s Pacific salmon populations to assess whether they are healthy or at risk. Among those that can be assessed in British Columbia, around 70 per cent are in decline.

Why monitoring matters

Counting salmon isn’t bureaucratic box-checking. Salmon are foundational to coastal ecosystems and communities, and spawner counts are one of the simplest and most reliable ways to assess population health.

These data inform researchers and fisheries managers whether populations are stable, declining or recovering, and they underpin difficult decisions: when fisheries must be closed to prevent further harm, or when sustainable openings can support food security and livelihoods.

Without consistent monitoring, managers are forced to make decisions with limited evidence. Warning signs can be missed, and fisheries or habitat degradation may continue while populations quietly decline.

And the timing couldn’t be worse. The erosion of monitoring is occurring just as pressures on salmon are intensifying.

Climate change is warming rivers, altering ocean food webs, increasing the frequency of floods and droughts and reshaping freshwater habitats across Western Canada. In a changing environment, monitoring is the only way to distinguish natural variability from sustained declines.

At the same time, Canada is moving to accelerate industrial development. Recent federal legislation allows faster approval of projects deemed to be in the “national interest.” This push for speed is occurring while federal capacity to monitor salmon ecosystems weakens.

While expediency may be appealing, it carries real environmental risks unless matched by corresponding investment in mitigation and monitoring. When development accelerates while monitoring declines, decisions are increasingly made without a clear picture of what is being put at risk — or how impacts will be detected and addressed once projects are under way.

Data collection needed

The decline in monitoring is not simply the result of shrinking budgets or unavoidable austerity. Over the past two decades, federal investments in other salmon-related programs — such as enhancement and aquaculture development — have consistently exceeded investments in policy targeting salmon conservation.

In 2021, the federal government committed a historic $647 million to salmon conservation through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative. Yet the systematic rebuilding of monitoring programs — the basic data collection needed to assess population health — was not made a central funding priority.

The challenge is likely to intensify. Recent federal budgets have committed to significant cuts to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the department responsible for fisheries oversight and environmental monitoring. This would likely further constrain the capacity to rebuild monitoring programs.

In plain terms, Canada has not invested in the collection of information needed to know whether conservation efforts are actually working — or where action is most urgently required.

What rebuilding monitoring would look like

Reversing the decline in salmon monitoring is achievable, and relatively inexpensive compared to the costs of recovery once populations collapse.

First, the monitoring infrastructure and systems that allow governments and communities to track salmon populations must be treated as essential public infrastructure.

Second, coverage matters as much as precision. Monitoring more populations consistently, even with imperfect counts, often provides better insight than highly precise estimates at a few sites. Data gaps are far more damaging than moderate uncertainty.

Third, Indigenous-led and community-based monitoring offers a powerful opportunity to rebuild capacity. Many Indigenous nations have deep knowledge of salmon systems and strong stewardship responsibilities. Supporting monitoring partnerships, while respecting Indigenous data governance, can expand coverage, strengthen legitimacy and provide economic opportunities in local communities.

Finally, if governments choose to fast-track major projects, they must strengthen, not weaken, baseline ecological monitoring in affected watersheds. Speed should not come at the expense of understanding.

Canada has a clear framework for conserving wild salmon in the Wild Salmon Policy, but its effectiveness is undermined by low investment in basic monitoring. Without consistent and representative data, it becomes impossible to know what populations are in trouble, whether conservation efforts are working or where action is most urgently needed.

In effect, we are increasingly managing salmon in the dark — with stark consequences for ecosystems, fisheries and communities. Rebuilding broad, representative, monitoring programs is a foundational step that Canada can take to safeguard wild salmon in a time of rapid environmental and industrial change.

If we stop counting salmon, we should not be surprised when they disappear — quietly.

Michael Price is affiliated with SkeenaWild Conservation Trust as the Director of Science, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biology at Simon Fraser University.

Jonathan Moore is the principal investigator of the Salmon Watersheds Lab.

– ref. Canada is losing track of its wild salmon — just when we need that knowledge most – https://theconversation.com/canada-is-losing-track-of-its-wild-salmon-just-when-we-need-that-knowledge-most-273746