Canada’s Oceans Now: Atlantic Ecosystems, 2022 - Atlantic Salmon facing many threats

Atlantic Salmon facing many threats

The infographic depicts a river flowing into the ocean. At the top right there is a large illustration of a salmon over a text box. The top of the box is orange with white title text and the bottom is white with black text:

Atlantic Salmon stocks across Atlantic Canada have been at low abundance since the mid-1990s, and recovery has been challenging because of the many threats they encounter throughout their life cycle. Salmon redds, fry, parr, smolts, and adults are studied in rivers to assess their status and population trends.

The surrounding land is mostly green and forested except an island that splits the river and has an agricultural field on it. Atlantic salmon are illustrated as blue shaded outlines with larger adults spawners swimming upstream and smaller juveniles swimming downstream towards the ocean.

Methods for counting Atlantic Salmon are illustrated within blue circles along the lefthand branch of the river from top to bottom in blue circles with attached blue boxes of white text:

• Counting redds (red eggs illustrated among gravel)
• Counting fry/parr (stick with electrical discharge at the end and a hand net)
• Counting smolts (illustration of a smolt counting wheel)
• Counting returning adults (a box trap net)

Each threats is illustrated within a red circles along the island and righthand side of the river and down to the ocean. A red text box is attached with white text:

• Stream acidification
• Illegal fishing
• Dams (a dam illustrated across the right branch of the river with fish climbing)
• Crop spraying (illustrated with a crop sprayer on the field with yellow haze heading towards the water)
• Deforestation (illustrated with a patch of deforested land along the left river bank)
• Invasive species (illustrated along the bottom of the coast at the ocean)
  • Chain Pickerel
  • Smallmouth Bass
• Aquaculture (two net pens illustrated along the ocean coastline)
• Aquaculture escapees (illustrated as red fish outlines swimming into the river)
• Parasites (at the mouth of the river a blue fish outline with illustrated with red parasites)
• Poor survival during marine migration (a red dotted outline of the fish in the ocean)
• Warmer water temperatures (in the ocean with a thermometer and an upwards arrow)