Government of Canada and Province of British Columbia support 15 fisheries, habitat, seafood innovation and aquaculture projects

Okanagan Nation Alliance

The Bringing the Salmon Home Initiative is founded upon a historic Agreement and guided by Indigenous-led governance involving five governments. This project proposes work across 3 workstreams including salmon ecosystem rebuilding, salmon habitats and connectivity, and knowledge synthesis and integration.

$5,273,138

Great Bear Initiative Society

The second phase of Great Bear Initiative Society will focus on providing on-site technical support, developing site-specific operating manuals, and sharing best practices for operating and managing the newly upgraded hatcheries, with opportunities for participating First Nations to refresh and build fish health technical skills.

$1,699,812

Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nation

A 3-year study of Chinook salmon in the Kaouk and Artlish Rivers.

$976,813

Halalt First Nation

Continuation of process-based restoration work in high-valued tributaries of the Chemainus and Koksilah watersheds, including the addition of a Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagging component

$1,217,814

Investment Agriculture Foundation British Columbia

This multi-year initiative addresses the threat of riparian habitat degradation through improved agricultural practices that benefit salmon ecosystems and multiple Species at Risk. FLA operates on a watershed-to-watershed basis, identifying and assessing restoration opportunities within riparian areas adjacent to salmon bearing streams and rivers, that run through farming areas.

$3,000,000

Ducks Unlimited Canada

Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) will build on the successes of their ongoing work by expanding the Fraser River Estuary Salmon Habitat (FRESH) Restoration project to include new research and monitoring activities to improve the ability of future salmon habitat restoration efforts. Results will be shared with government and NGO restoration practitioners.

$5,000,000

University of Northern British Columbia

This project will focus on understanding the effects of climate change on salmon ecosystems and the direct effects of increasing water temperatures and wildfire-contaminated spawning habitat on interior Pacific salmon early life stages. Improvements to hatchery infrastructure will aid Chinook enhancement and conservation efforts with collaborators at DFO and Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance.

$5,000,000

Nanwakolas Council Society

The Nanwakolas 50 Watersheds Project is an Indigenous-led science partnership and research project to understand, and develop tools to address, the threats posed by climate change and forest management on salmon populations and their habitat. The project will comprise 3 collaborative science research areas: climate-salmon research, forestry-salmon research, and environmental DNA-salmon research.

$2,875,000

Pacific Salmon Foundation

This PSF project will assist communities strive to adjust fisheries management to deal with climate change uncertainties by monitoring climate change in salmon freshwater habitats. This project will enable both local and broad scale planning for climate resilient salmon ecosystems.

$3,997,861

University of Victoria, Department of Biology

The University of Victoria, Biology Department, will work with First Nation and industry partners to identify sablefish resistant to a pathogen that limits the large-scale expansion of sablefish aquaculture in coastal communities.

$378,070

Canadian Wildlife Federation

The goal of the Restoring Freshwater Connectivity for Pacific Salmon project by the Canadian Wildlife Federation is to develop up to 7 indigenous-led watershed connectivity remediation plans in Pacific salmon habitat. Some target areas for watershed plans include the Bowron River and Quesnel River watersheds.

$2,288,035

SeaChange Marine Conservation Society

Phase 2 of The Resilient Estuaries in the Salish Sea will build upon research completed in partnership with the Pacific Salmon Foundation and will provide baseline assessments of critical salmonid habitats in the highly resilient estuaries identified during that work.

$1,160,085

Salmon Coast Field Station Society

This project contains 4 components across watersheds in Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory that provide proximate empirical data on the environmental conditions of salmon habitats, salmon stress, growth, and immune responses to their stream environments, as well as population level relationships from salmon and forestry timeseries.

$1,519,522

Coastal Restoration Society

Partnering with Vancouver Island First Nations to remove European Green Crab and understand their impact on important salmon habitat.

$1,994,100

Secretariat of the Haida Nation

The European Green Crab on Haida Gwaii Working Group will continue to mitigate impacts of European Green Crab invasion through intensive monitoring, research, and response methods to understand, assess, develop, and implement management measures.

$3,016,571