Ep. 269: The state of the Pacific salmon population

Guest: Jason Hwang, VP of Salmon, Pacific Salmon Foundation

More often than not, when we hear news about Pacific salmon, we brace ourselves for more bad news.

Recently we learned that the Fraser River sockeye returns were the worst on record. Add in the Big Bar landslide, the impacts of ecosystem changes, like eelgrass depletion, algae blooms and the on-going debate over open-net pen salmon fish farms, and you can’t help but start to think it’s all bad news.

Luckily, Pacific salmon are remarkably resilient. They are still here and there are still many opportunities for us to do all we can to ensure their survivability and return to abundance.

The Pacific Salmon Foundation is committed to the work of ensuring Pacific salmon survive. The organization funds a number of stream and habitat restoration projects along with scientific research. PSF works with Genome BC, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and a wide range of other agencies to develop science that will better inform decision makers on how best to save our salmon.

We invited the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Vice President for Salmon, Jason Hwang, to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the state of salmon. This episode of the show will also serve as the kickoff to a new series of “Salmon Matter” casts that can be seen on the Conversations That Matter channel each month starting in January 2020.