The Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia team up to protect salmon populations and the fisheries they support Français
STEVESTON HARBOUR, BC, Dec. 14, 2023 /CNW/ - Today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, and the BC Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the Honourable Nathan Cullen, announced $86,119,340 for 58 projects receiving funding under the second phase of the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF). Launched in March 2019, BCSRIF has made investments in support of habitat protection and restoration, ensuring the fish and seafood sector in British Columbia is positioned for long-term environmental and economic sustainability. The projects announced today are jointly funded through Canada's Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI) and the Province of BC. These contributions will support recipients selected through BCSRIF's second application intake in carrying out important conservation projects that restore salmon ecosystems while providing sustainable, resilient and prosperous fisheries.
Some of the projects announced today include:
- The University of British Columbia, Department of Civil Engineering receives $1.8M in funding to assess the prevalence of stormwater contaminants in salmon-bearing streams in BC and identify opportunities for green infrastructure interventions to protect salmon populations rom toxic road runoff contaminants.
- The Pacific Salmon Foundation receives $2.4M in funding for the Salmon Recovery - advancing planning and action project.
- Scw'exmx Tribal Council receives $5.30M in funding for the Post Flood Support for Fish and Fish Habitat Recovery in the Nicola Watershed project. The Scw'exmx Tribal Council's Fisheries Department, the Nicola Watershed Stewardship and Fisheries Authority (NWSFA), aim to provide flood recovery actions in the Nicola Watershed and offset the impacts of flooding on fish and fish habitat.
- Lax Kw'alaams Business Development Ltd.receives $2.21M for the Skeena River Fish Trap Project in collaboration with Skeena Fisheries Commission and the Wild Fish Conservancy to evaluate the feasibility of an impoundment net fish trap in the lower Skeena River to harvest salmon and other species.
"Our government is committed to working with the Province of British Columbia to invest in programs that protect BC's salmon populations and the fisheries they support. The project recipients being highlighted today are making significant progress in preserving and restoring salmon habitat while also providing long term, sustainable fisheries. The British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund continues to be a successful contribution program that utilizes innovative techniques to safeguard the future of Pacific salmon and other priority fish stocks for years to come."
The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard
"Our government is taking action to protect and enhance watersheds and ecosystem health throughout the province. The projects we are announcing today will restore key salmon habitats, build climate-resilient salmon ecosystems and support the long-term economic and environmental sustainability of B.C.'s fisheries. These projects are using the best science and expert Indigenous knowledge to bring back abundance to B.C.'s waterways and the ecosystems and communities they support."
The Honourable Nathan Cullen, B.C. Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and Minister Responsible for Fisheries
"As a Federal Minister in British Columbia, I understand the importance of accelerating our efforts to sustain and restore wild salmon populations and their habitat. The projects announced today will create infrastructure to protect salmon from climate change and pollution, introduce more sustainable fishing methods, and target destructive invasive species. These investments will create cleaner ecosystems where Pacific salmon, and B.C. communities like my own that depend on them, can thrive."
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Canada
"Salmon is a social, economic and spiritual cornerstone of life here in Richmond and across BC. Today's joint investment by the federal and provincial government demonstrates our commitment to restore and protect Pacific salmon populations. These investments will help feed our communities, restore biodiversity, and improve salmon stocks that support our Steveston Harbor and the fishing industry."
Parm Bains, Member of Parliament for Steveston–Richmond East
- Since inception, 155 projects have received BCSRIF funding, representing an investment of more than $214.67 million in the rebuilding of wild Pacific salmon stocks and supporting the BC fish and seafood sector.
- Additional information on projects selected for BCSRIF funding can be found online here.
- The BCSRIF is a 70 per cent federal, 30 per cent provincial cost-shared program.
- Budget 2021 committed an additional $100 million in new federal funding to expand the BCSRIF program, as a key component of the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), bringing Canada's total contribution to $200 million over seven years. With the Government of British Columbia's mandate commitment to double its investment, the Province is providing $85.7 million over seven years.
- The Government of Canada's Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative is the largest-ever government investment in efforts to save Pacific salmon. Through this investment, Canada will undertake a strategic and coordinated long-term response, rooted in collaborative action, to stabilize and restore Pacific salmon for the ecosystems, people, and communities that depend upon their sustainability.
- BCSRIF funding is open to applications from Indigenous communities, commercial organizations in the wild fisheries and aquaculture sectors, recreational fisheries, as well as non-commercial organizations such as universities and research institutions, industry associations, and conservation groups.
- Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund
- British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund
- Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative
- British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund annual results summary 2021 to 2022
- Follow Fisheries and Oceans Canada on X (Twitter), Facebook and YouTube.
- Follow the Canadian Coast Guard on X (Twitter), Facebook and YouTube.
Government of Canada and Province of British Columbia support
58 fisheries, seafood innovation and aquaculture projects
The following 58 projects are receiving funding under the second phase of the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF).
Project Recipient |
Project Description |
Project Cost |
Sport Fishing Institute of BC |
Continuing improvements to the Fishing BC app including digital licence display, submission of catch data and addition of regulatory information. |
$714,445 |
Squamish River Watershed Society |
Breaching the Squamish spit to open up Chinook salmon passage and important estuarine habitat. |
$1,089,320 |
Pacheedaht First Nation |
Implementing 3 salmon habitat restoration projects in the San Juan and Gordon estuaries to increase connectivity and rehabilitate damaged habitat for salmon. |
$3,255,606 |
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Applied Genomics Centre |
Whole genome sequencing of Aeromonas salmonicidia, a pathogenic bacterium that severely impacts salmonid populations and other fish species. |
$278,272 |
Pacific Salmon Foundation |
Four activities including identifying top priorities for salmon at conservation unit or stock management unit scales, a Conservation Strategy for the Heart of the Fraser area, a Salmon Recovery Plan in the upper Fraser area and applying a method to provide salmon seasonal access to floodplain habitat in the Lower Fraser River. |
$2,640,683 |
Gitanyow Huwilp Society |
Using upward-looking hydroacoustic technique, a biological sampling program and inclined plane traps to estimate Meziadin Lake sockeye smolt production. |
$749,585 |
Xwemalhkwu (Homalco) First Nation |
Undertaking a hatchery feasibility study for Orford Bay, stock assessment and genetic analysis for the Southgate River chinook population, geohazard assessment for land stability above Elliot Creek and collection of Bute Inlet oceanographic & climate data. |
$775,225
|
Huu-ay-aht First Nations |
A 3-year study of the Sarita Chinook population including smolt migration, habitat use, spawning areas and predation impacts. |
$1,662,046 |
Salish Sea Indigenous Guardians Association |
Build an Indigenous led salmon population and habitat monitoring program in priority areas of the Lower Fraser River and Boundary Bay, including a cumulative effects assessment framework and restoration action plan. |
$2,222,120
|
Nechako Environment and Water Stewardship Society |
Fish habitat restoration projects in the Nechako watershed and a complementary eDNA study to assist in determining distribution of salmonids. |
$1,500,000 |
Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council |
Assessing West Coast Vancouver Island Herring populations, including diversity of life history traits and responses to climate change and fishing pressures. |
$575,960 |
University of Victoria, Department of Geography |
Establish a latitudinal network of sentinel areas along the BC coast in order to quantify the spatial-temporal density of kelp-encrusting bryozoans and associated environmental conditions. |
$948,794
|
Lil'wat First Nation |
Generating an escapement estimate of wild Coho to the Lillooet Conservation Unit for each return year of 2023, 2024, 2025. |
$694,491
|
University of British Columbia Okanagan, Department of Biology |
Combining genetic, morphological and microchemistry analyses to investigate hybridization between anadromous sockeye and resident kokanee within the Skaha Lake system over a 15-year period. |
$218,350
|
A-Tlegay Fisheries Society |
Site assessment, engagement, trap design, construction and operation of a tidal waters traditional selective fishery salmon trap in the Campbell/Quinsam estuary. |
$1,143,114 |
Redd Fish Restoration Society |
Building on the successes of the Clayoquot Wild Chinook Salmon Initiative Project to address habitat loss at a watershed scale in priority watersheds in Clayoquot Sound. |
$3,200,000
|
Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance Society |
Continuing the successful Chilliwack coho PIT tag escapement project to estimate the total escapement of coho to the Lower Fraser and Chilliwack River. |
$543,840 |
Discovery Coast Greenways Land Trust |
Restoring approximately two hectares of the Campbell River Estuary towards pre-development conditions using process-based restoration techniques. |
$1,676,000 |
Tsawwassen First Nation |
Building on the Fraser River Tsawwassen First Nation pound net project including training for TFN members, engagement and a continued robust salmon mortality study. |
$810,062 |
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences |
Examining the impacts of climate change on the food (zooplankton) available to out-migrating juvenile salmon and resident adult species in the Salish Sea. |
$253,963 |
North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) |
Ensuring the effective development of the Basin-scale Events to Coastal Impacts (BECI) project and work on downscaled basin-wide models, data governance and engineering and Indigenous participation in the design of the project. |
$1,154,750 |
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Department of Civil Engineering |
Documenting and mitigating the adverse impacts on salmon populations of toxic road runoff on BC salmon in the Lower Mainland, with a focus on the emerging tire-related chemical 6PPD-quinone. |
$1,747,809 |
Simon Fraser University, Department of Biological Sciences |
The overarching goal of the Watershed Futures project is to inform and catalyze the effective stewardship of cumulative effects to increase resilience of salmon watersheds to climate change. |
$1,254,022 |
SCBC Stewardship Centre for BC |
The Stewardship Centre for BC (SCBC) is proposing a Green Shores project at Cultus Lake to improve riparian and aquatic habitat, mitigate erosion, and benefit the endangered Cultus Lake Sockeye, lake ecosystems, and community values. |
$531,674 |
Shuswap Nation Tribal Council Society |
The Secwepemc Fisheries Commission (on behalf of the Thompson-Shuswap Salmon Collaborative), seeks to assess, monitor, and respond to freshwater habitat threats facing wild salmon and steelhead in the Thompson-Shuswap sub-region. |
$1,306,000 |
The B.C. Wildlife Federation |
The British Columbia Wildlife Federation (BCWF)proposes to install beaver dam analogues (BDA) and establish BDA technology as a method for stream restoration in BC, as this method is a low-cost approach to wetland restoration and fish habitat enhancement. |
$1,538,703 |
Lax Kw'alaams Business Development Ltd. |
Lax Kw'alaams Fisheries, Skeena Fisheries Commission, and Wild Fish Conservancy are collaborating to evaluate the feasibility of an impoundment net fish trap in the lower Skeena River, to harvest salmon and other species. |
$2,272,760 |
Wild Canadian Sablefish, Ltd. |
Wild Canadian Sablefish aims to improve sustainable fishing practices for bottom contact fisheries by deploying deep-water cameras, accelerometers, and depth sensors on longline trap Sablefish gear to collect observations of deep-sea habitats and monitor bottom-contact from fishing gear. |
$257,400 |
MakeWay Charitable Society |
Phase 3 of Resiliant Waters aims to restore connections to wild salmon habitat in the Lower Fraser River while advancing best practices in fish-friendly flood-control infrastructure. |
$3,613,173 |
Little Shuswap Lake Band |
Little Shuswap Lake Band aims to re-establishing connectivity and habitat conditions to support and sustain recovery of Adams River sockeye, other salmon, and resident fish species. |
$1,884,334 |
Pacific Salmon Foundation |
PSF in collaboration with academic and First Nations partners aim to build on previous work in Salish Sea to address outstanding knowledge gaps around the interactions between herring and Pacific salmon. |
3,722,499 |
Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium |
The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (UVic) aims to expand upon their current work by providing results on the impact of climate change on the freshwater environment at a resolution sufficient to represent individual stream reaches and lakes. This project will deliver highly detailed streamflow and water quality data and associated exposure indicators. |
$558,355
|
Skeetchestn Indian Band |
The Deadman River Watershed Restoration Program (the Program) by the Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation aims to restore the post-wildfire valley-bottom to a climate-resilient riverscape by establishing a comprehensive monitoring and research program as well as implementing land and riparian restoration treatments in the watershed using process based restoration through nature-base solutions. |
$4,000,000
|
British Columbia Conservation Foundation |
British Columbia Conservation Foundation In partnership with Vancouver Island University, the UVic, local First Nations, stewardship groups and local government representatives aims to identify where the major sources of tire wear toxin (TWT) inputs are along eastern Vancouver Island, investigate the spatiotemporal concentration changes of the TWTs from point sources and evaluate the efficacy of engineered solutions to remove and/or prevent TWTs from entering salmon-bearing streams. |
$2,293,016
|
Comox Valley Project Watershed Society |
Comox Valley Project Watershed Society will build off the successes of their completed BCSRIF-funded project to apply and refine recently developed research tools and models to identify forage fish spawning, rearing, burying and foraging habitats in the Salish Sea and off the west coast of Vancouver Island. |
$1,402,754
|
Ecofish Research Ltd. |
The Conservation and Recovery Research on Oolicah in Haisla Territory (CAROOHT) Research Team will conduct intensive surveys on the transitional stage of Oolichan larvae from estuaries to offshore environments on the Central Coast. |
$1,213,354 |
Nootka Sound Watershed Society |
The Watershed Restoration Prioritization Tool/ Solutions for Gold River Steelhead Project is a collaborative project led by NSWS and partners to support long-term management and recovery of priority salmon stocks in the Nootka Sound region of West Coast Vancouver Island, with a particular focus on threatened Chinook Salmon and Steelhead stocks in the Gold River watershed. |
$1,165,470 |
St'át'imc Government Services (SGS) |
This project will provide key information to preserving and managing the endangered Portage Creek Chinook population. Through innovative and robust methods, the project will provide a high-precision estimate of juvenile and spawner abundance within Portage Creek to quantify enhancement success. |
$810,602 |
Scw'exmx Tribal Council |
The Scw'exmx Tribal Council's Fisheries Department, the Nicola Watershed Stewardship and Fisheries Authority (NWSFA), aim to provide flood recovery actions in the Nicola Watershed. There are 18 sites and issues that have been identified as requiring immediate attention and/or presenting opportunities to offset the impacts of flooding on fish and fish habitat |
$5,309,810 |
Heiltsuk Tribal Council |
The Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department will assess and mitigate the spread of European Green Crab (EGC), focusing on important salmon habitat in the Central Coast of British Columbia, including eelgrass beds and estuaries near spawning habitats. |
$1,423,750 |
University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries |
This project uses samples collected through trawl surveys conducted under the International Year of the Salmon to combine Compound-Specific Isotope analysis with diet analysis to resolve competitive interactions among salmon and other species in the East North Pacific. |
$186,450 |
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Department of Zoology |
This project will aim to identify how changes in the environment can impact a salmons olfactory response during different life history phases. |
$541,750 |
Skeena Fisheries Commission |
The Skeena Fisheries Commission, in partnership with Gitksan Watershed Authorities will undertake activities to restore fish passage and utility of upstream habitats by replacing fish barriers in Gitksan Territory on the Skeena River watershed. |
$677,300 |
British Columbia Shellfish Growers Association |
Sustainability of shellfish aquaculture requires innovation in technologies, business adaptation, awareness of regulatory requirements, and environmental stewardship are the principle goals of this project. This project will build on the success and lessons of the Shellfish Aquaculture Strategic Renewal Program and the information from outreach to member and non-member shellfish farmers |
$1,000,000 |
Wet'suwet'en Treaty Office Society |
This project will support continued work by the Wet'suwet'en Treaty Office Society to assess and rebuild salmon populations and habitat in the Skeena River watershed. |
$565,000 |
Peninsula Streams Society |
PSS, working collaboratively with partners, through assessments and restoration, will work to develop the key priorities for sustainable salmon habitats within the contexts of Indigenous knowledge, science, urbanization, and climate change. |
$250,000 |
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries |
Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency complex (TDC) is a rapidly emerging issue impacting Chinook salmon in California and Alaska, but has received extremely limited evaluation in British Columbia. This project will provide baseline knowledge of the status of thiamine in BC Chinook salmon. |
$545,151 |
Kitsumkalum Band, Fish & Wildlife |
Building on feasibility studies funded through a previous BCSRIF intake, this project will implement designs to improve identified fish stranding sites along the Highway 16 corridor between Prince Rupert and Terrace along the lower Skeena River. |
$888,261 |
Pacific Salmon Foundation |
The project aims to start filling in information gaps related to West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook salmon mortality during early marine residence. |
$1,150,000 |
The Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC) |
The Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC) will continue and expand their existing BCSRIF-funded project involving monitoring and research to assess estuary resilience to sea-level rise and other climate impacts across the coast of BC using the Marsh Resilience to Sea Level Rise (MARS) tool. |
$3,493,975 |
West Coast Kelp Ltd. |
The goal of this project is to address a major bottleneck inhibiting Canadian kelp farmers and restoration initiatives: insufficient and unreliable seed supply. In order to address this bottleneck, this project will improve hatchery methods and expand WCK's existing hatchery infrastructure to produce enough kelp seed for seventy-two hectares of kelp farm per year. |
$92,434 |
Stó:lo Service Agency |
The project team along with technical professionals of the S'ólh Téméxw Stewardship Alliance, aim to assess the Gill Bar for habitat destruction related to the impacts of long term heavy recreational use and to conduct an inventory of the habitats and species use. These findings will then feed into an in-river island management plan and associated restoration works. |
$1,513,649 |
Lheidli T'enneh First Nation |
The Chilako River and Tributary Restoration is a Lheidli T'enneh led initiative that takes a strategic, process based approach to recovering impacted spawning and rearing habitat. The objective is to rehabilitate stream and river corridors such that stability exists during valley wide floods and the floodplain remains connected to the river during the extreme summer low flows. |
$3,000,000 |
Gwa'sala 'Nakwaxda'xw Nations |
The Gwa'sala 'Nakwaxda-xw project will focus on salmon habitat restoration and enhancement in Smith Inlet and Seymour Inlet on the Central Coast. |
$873,215 |
A Rocha Canada |
A Rocha Canada will assess the status of the Boundary Bay Chinook salmon conservation unit (CU) and its habitat in the TA'TALU (Little Campbell River) watershed, with the overarching goal of improving the sustainability of the CU in this system. |
$535,388 |
Sport Fishing Institute of BC |
This project will operate a Pilot program to develop a Test Fishery for Chinook Salmon to be used to supplement and verify stock composition data used in the development and management of Marked Selective Fisheries (MSF) for Chinook Salmon. |
$1,573,653 |
Sport Fishing Institute of BC |
This project will build on a previously funded Fisheries Related Incidental Mortality (FRIM) study led by the Sport Fishing Institute to expand the work to include Coho salmon, in addition to Chinook. |
$1,724,644 |
Pacific Salmon Foundation
|
This work will utilize and refine Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag architecture developed through the ongoing BCSRIF-funded "Bottlenecks Program" to track individual fish and provide new insights into survival in the South Coast. |
$5,096,359 |
SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region
Jérémy Collard, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, [email protected]; Media Relations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 613-990-7537, [email protected]; Media Relations, Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, 250-896-7365, [email protected]
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