The Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia team up to protect salmon populations and the fisheries they support

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