Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative update

Issue 2023-1: March 2023

On this page

• Our Habitat Restoration Centre of Expertise – Support for Pacific salmon and the PSSI
• Sharing knowledge – workshops spread a wealth of experience
• Hatchery modernization – Supporting and rebuilding salmon populations
• Pacific salmon licence retirement and alternation programs announced

Our Habitat Restoration Centre of Expertise – Support for Pacific salmon and the PSSI

With the launch of the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI) in June 2021, we began the work to enhance our efforts to support Pacific salmon by expanding our team of experts to form the Habitat Restoration Centre of Expertise (COE).

The COE is adding capacity and expertise to improve its restoration efforts both strategically and operationally, and ensuring that its plans include applied science research. The goals of the COE include developing and implementing a regional strategy to:

• build and maintain strong partnerships to advance salmon habitat restoration goals and objectives in the region
• promote, support, and implement restoration work in priority areas through a coordinated approach
• develop and implement monitoring and research to ensure that restoration activities are innovative, effective, and based on science

The COE offers a specialized, diverse set of skillsets to support sustainable and effective habitat restoration solutions for local salmon conservation and recovery in our rapidly changing climate. Experts include scientists, biologists, engineers, engineering technicians, monitoring technicians, hydrogeomorphologists, and data analysts. These experts will support our partners with prioritization, feasibility, project planning and design, permitting guidance, environmental management plans, project management, monitoring, and maintenance. Their collective expertise and geographic distribution means increased support for projects from concept to completion and working closely with Indigenous groups and partners to strengthen engagement, outreach, and relationships to sustain action towards salmon recovery.

Supporting partners in salmon habitat restoration helps guide salmon habitat restoration to priority places and projects. It also maximizes the benefits for salmon while reducing the cost and time to advance on-the-ground projects, allowing for consistent implementation of projects. Supporting partners also improves information and knowledge sharing on restoration research, best practices, and techniques, including the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and cultural values.

These teams will also help support effective funding decisions and the use of resources from our other programs such as the joint federally and provincially funded British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF), and those of external partners like BC Hydro and non-governmental organizations, such as the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

The following snapshots are just a few of the salmon restoration projects carried out in 2022.

The Upper Pitt River – Restoring precious spawning ground

The Pitt River watershed is an important sanctuary for a multitude of wildlife: elk, grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, and Pacific salmon. The river valley is in Katzie First Nation territory northeast of Vancouver. The river flows into the largest tidal lake in the world: Pitt Lake. Beyond the lake, the Pitt spills into the Fraser River and, ultimately, the Salish Sea. In 2000, the Province of British Columbia designated the Upper Pitt River the province’s most endangered river: its proximity to Vancouver (25 km east-northeastwards) has put the area under development pressure, affecting water flow and connectivity to other areas and seriously upsetting spawning sockeye and coho in the river’s Alvin Patterson Channel.

In fact, the Upper Pitt River is home to the largest remaining wild coho population in the Lower Fraser River, in addition to being a refuge for a unique species of sockeye and other Pacific salmon; it’s rated one of the top fly-fishing rivers in Canada by American Angler magazine.

Conceived in 2021, the project is expected to create additional new habitat for sockeye, beyond that afforded by the existing Alvin Patterson Channel. Some 3,415 square metres of channel area were created last year, providing spawning ground for sockeye and coho salmon, as well as new rearing habitat for coho. The teams accomplished this by first twinning an existing intake off Corbold Creek, which had been supplying river water to the Alvin Patterson Channel and the smaller so-called “Fish Hatchery Creek” coho habitat complex. This new outlet has been named the Sthe’qi Channel (the traditional Katzie Nation word for sockeye). The team then excavated a 680 metre-long channel with several pools beside the existing Alvin Patterson Channel, and constructed a road crossing by means of a culvert to merge with the Alvin Patterson Channel at its downstream end, ultimately discharging into the Pitt River.

The work anticipated for 2023 and beyond includes several follow-up projects in the Upper Pitt River watershed, of which 2 are expected to be completed this year.

Adams River sockeye channel – Re-establishing flow for spawning redds

According to a study carried out by the Province of BC in 1977, descendants of the Shuswap people inhabited sites along the Adams River as many as 4,000 years ago. Their choice of location is no surprise, given the ideal spawning conditions of the river for Pacific salmon. But, like elsewhere in the region, the number of fish returning to spawn has declined significantly in recent decades.

Leaders of the Little Shuswap Lake Band were keen to see a lasting restoration of the habitat and applied to the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF) to undertake what was needed. They were keen to work with our staff in the BC Interior area to accomplish this. While monitoring the site in 2019, our staff noticed stream flows in several channels were affected by climate change and anthropogenic activities, making it difficult for spawners to access the area. So, working with the Band, they began work to change that by constructing channels upstream to return the channel to its vitality, and have been monitoring their effectiveness since that time.

In their ongoing monitoring of the system last October, our staff noticed that 1 channel in particular – the upstream intake on the north side of the lake – was experiencing low water flow. As many redds were observed spawning in the channel, there was concern that the channel would dewater, effectively destroying the spawning efforts of the fish.

Working hand in hand with contractors, the Little Shuswap Lake Band, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, and BC Parks, staff with the COE intervened in early November to restore water flow. With their collective ‘shovels in the ground,’ the collaborators completed the work in a matter of days and ensured the redds’ spawning efforts in 2022 were not in vain.

Brandt Creek – Restoring chum

Brandt Creek is a tributary to the Indian River but has limited access for anadromous fish due to a large waterfall near its outlet. In the 1980s, a groundwater-fed spawning channel was constructed to encourage salmon to spawn. On average, runs are greater than 40,000 fish, and more than 100,000 in several of the last 20 years. But the Indian River is unstable and channel migration can occur at an unnaturally rapid pace. Considerable amounts of bedload (rocks tumbling along the bed) change the shape of the channel. This results in bars forming, which causes the water to shift around. In the past, the shifting of a river channel would have occurred over the span of centuries; however, they can now move dramatically within 2 to 3 years. In about 2002, the Indian River began flowing straight down the constructed Brandt spawning channel, and with its strong flow, carrying sand and sediment with it and clogging the spawning channel. By 2015, much of the Brandt channel was buried under up to 2 metres of sand and gravel, though chum and coho continued to use the upstream end.

A second major event occurred in 2017 when a landslide upstream caused a debris torrent to flow down nearby Hixson Creek (which enters the Indian River at the bottom end of the Brandt spawning channel), completely burying the outlet of the spawning channel. As a result, fish have been unable to spawn or to make their way up the stream.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation (People of the Inlet), whose territory encompasses the Indian River, has a vested interest in its health, and a history of working with our restoration staff on small projects on the river since the 1990s. Tsleil-Waututh fish crew walk the channels frequently throughout the year to assess fish use and observe any changes to their habitat. Our staff joined up with them in the winter of 2020-21 and the fall of 2021 to assess the condition of historic habitat channels. Working together, we devised and carried out a plan in the summer of 2022, where dump trucks, a rock loader, 2 excavators, and a pickup truck were barged up the Indian Arm to the project site. Aided by local contractors, we reconstructed the outlet to the channel at the bottom end of the creek to Indian River, rebuilt the channel upstream by excavating the accumulated sediment, and constructed a small berm to protect the creek from further degradation from flooding by the Indian River. The berm is expected to last 20 years. While drought was a concern in early fall last year, by the tail end of the drought, both the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and we were thrilled to note that chum had moved back into the channel, and at best some 1,500 fish spawned.

Sharing knowledge – Online workshops spread a wealth of experience

As the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard has noted, we cannot alone rebuild Pacific salmon stocks. First Nations, whose culture is inextricably linked to Pacific salmon, as well as stakeholders, provincial and territorial governments, and communities whose economies depend on Pacific salmon to thrive, all have a stake in its recovery. Indeed, the PSSI acknowledges the need for greater integration across several sectors within DFO itself to better achieve the objectives of this initiative. That is why Pillar 4 of the PSSI (Integration and Collaboration) is as important an element as any other supporting it.

To that end, in November 2022, in partnership with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the Habitat COE held the first in a series of online workshops to provide a platform for participants to exchange knowledge about restoration planning, design, implementation and monitoring in the Pacific region. The workshops are open to both departmental and external restoration practitioners seeking to protect and rebuild salmon habitat resources.

The first workshop, which numbered 425 participants, was viewed as a resounding success. Its focus was on ways of reconnecting a degraded stream channel to a floodplain habitat. A degraded stream channel is one in which the channel bed has dropped, resulting in the stream being disconnected from its floodplain.

Historically, the approach to address this situation has been to add missing habitat elements to the degraded channel. But more recently, hydrologists have found that a so-called ‘stage zero restoration’ concept works with natural processes to rehabilitate the degraded channel network and restore the water connection to its floodplain. Presenters from both the United States and the United Kingdom provided detailed insight to the concept, and area staff within the COE have begun to implement and monitor this low-tech approach to better understand its benefits.

The second workshop, which is scheduled for March 14, will focus on Habitat Restoration Monitoring. Monitoring provides what habitat restoration practitioners need to evaluate whether projects are meeting objectives of restoring ecosystems, as well as direction on whether adaptative management is necessary to refine current restoration practices or techniques.

An expert panel will also present information on designing, implementing and reporting on habitat restoration monitoring with specific project examples from restoration practitioners in the Pacific Region.

Hatchery modernization – Supporting and rebuilding salmon populations

Salmonid Enhancement Program principles

Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP)'s work is guided by 5 principles:

1. Enhancement decisions and activities will be informed by an integrated approach to salmon management, which includes Wild Salmon Policy guidance, science, Indigenous knowledge, and health and trends in wild populations and the ecosystem.
2. Enhancement activities must be conducted within applicable regulatory frameworks (including policies, guidelines and standards, and meeting conditions set out in all applicable licences.)
3. Enhancement activities will respect Indigenous and treaty rights, international agreements and treaties.
4. The act of enhancement does not confer exclusive access to fish produced. Fisheries on enhanced fish are subject to the policies, frameworks, guidelines and regulations that apply to Canadian Pacific salmon fisheries.
5. Enhancement activities must have clear objectives and goals. If these are not being met, activities will be adapted, changed or eliminated to realign with objectives set out in integrated plans.

Salmon enhancement has been core to salmon management in the Pacific Region for the last 45 years. Our Salmon Enhancement Program has played a major role in conserving Pacific salmon populations by engaging in enhancement activities and partnerships that contribute to salmon conservation, rebuilding, community involvement, assessment, and harvest.

Through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), we are investing in hatchery modernization, in line with transformed fisheries and sustainable salmon populations. Hatchery modernization is a multi-year process that includes investments in infrastructure, human resource capacity, policy, scientific tools and standards, governance, planning and evaluation, and increased collaboration with partners.

Enhancement, in the context of this policy framework, is the rearing of salmon stocks in a protected environment with the intent to release the fish into the wild to supplement wild populations.

An initial step in the hatchery modernization process is to clarify and communicate the policy foundation underpinning our Pacific salmon enhancement activities. To advance this, we have developed an Interim Pacific Salmon Enhancement Policy Framework describing the vision, mission, core values and key principles currently guiding our Pacific salmon enhancement approach.

Our vision in the framework is to contribute to healthy and diverse salmon populations through strategic and scientifically supported Pacific salmon enhancement activities and partnerships. The core values underpinning this work are integrity, excellence, adaptation, collaboration, and transparency.

To highlight this work, we held a number of virtual SEP 101 workshops in February presenting the basics of salmon enhancement, the interim policy framework elements, and hatchery modernization. If you missed these sessions, you can get a link to a recording by contacting dfo.sepengage-engagepmvs.mpo@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

As we move forward with hatchery modernization, we will continue to refine and update policies and decision support tools in collaboration with key partners.

Pacific salmon licence retirement and alternation programs announced

Pacific Salmon Commercial Licence Retirement Program

The anticipated Pacific Salmon Commercial Licence Retirement Program (LRP) was announced in December 2022 to provide commercial Pacific salmon licence holders the opportunity to retire their licences if they wish.

Its primary purpose is to help transform the commercial harvesting sector to one that better reflects the future harvest opportunities expected for the fishery. It is also intended to be part of our effort to improve the fishery’s financial viability and manageability for those that remain.

The LRP is completely voluntary and available to any commercial salmon licence holder owning a vessel and possessing 1 or more full or reduced fee salmon licences, including seine, gillnet, or troll licences. The program is expected to provide multiple opportunities for harvesters to retire their licences and will remain available until March 31, 2026, or until funds available under the program have been exhausted, whichever happens first.

We have been engaging with commercial harvesters, First Nations, and others since the announcement of the PSSI to obtain their views and feedback on both the design and roll-out of the LRP. The program will be administered on a reverse bid basis. Interested licence holders are invited to submit bids to retire their licence; we will review these bids carefully and decide which to accept. Once a bid is accepted and an agreement is completed to retire a licence, it will be removed permanently from the fishery.

To assess the value of a given licence and determine which bids to accept, we will draw on a variety of information sources, including licence valuation reports we commission regularly. These reports are available on our website and provide an indication of the range of market values in recent years for different types of salmon licences. In consulting with commercial harvesters, First Nations, and others on the design of the LRP, we heard consistently that the implementation of long-term commercial salmon fishery closures in both 2021 and 2022 may have contributed to a decrease in the value of some licences. For this reason, our estimates of licence valuation will focus years prior to these recent closures.

Web links to information and application forms are now available on our website. We anticipate multiple rounds of bids or callouts for licence eligibility holders.

Pacific Salmon Indigenous Communal Commercial Licence Alternation Program

The Pacific Salmon Indigenous Communal Commercial Licence Alternation Program (Alternation Program) was launched in February 2023. This program allows Indigenous communal commercial salmon licence eligibility holders (Category F and Category N) to alternate their salmon licence eligibility in return for financial support. This funding will contribute to acquiring alternative non-salmon commercial fisheries access. Funding may also be available for training, gear and/or vessel modifications to help remove barriers to fishing newly acquired access.

The objective of the Alternation Program is similar to that of the LRP in terms of reducing harvest pressure and the size of the fleet targeting Pacific salmon. We also want to ensure that it continues to provide Indigenous harvesters alternative fishing opportunities and support for fishing the newly acquired access so that they can continue to participate in commercial fisheries. Like the LRP, the salmon licences that are relinquished under this program will be retired from the fishery permanently.

Interested participants will find program and contact information on our website.

These programs, as well as the Derelict Vessel and Gear Mitigation program, are funded by up to $123 million, under the PSSI. A similar program supporting the retirement of troll licence holders has been in place since 2011; the sum of $8.36 million remaining in the Pacific Salmon Treaty mitigation program will remain available to support the retirement of troll licence holders.

Derelict Vessel Mitigation and Gear Disposal Program

Alongside the launch of the LRP and the Alternation Program, we have introduced the Derelict Vessel Mitigation and Gear Disposal Program (Vessel and Gear Disposal Program, or VGDP). This program is intended to reduce future derelict vessels and abandoned gear resulting from the LRP.

Vessel owners who recently had their commercial salmon licence eligibility/ies retired through the LRP and have fishing vessels and/or gear that they wish to dispose of, will be eligible to participate in the program on a voluntary basis. The target vessels and gear for the program are those that are near the end of their usable life, in which case there is no compensation being offered for vessels and gear. The VGDP will provide vessel owners with a nominal vessel delivery fee to help offset costs for delivering a vessel.

Our Small Craft Harbours Program will be administering the program, which will be area-based. Experienced harbour authorities in strategic locations on the coast have been identified to accept vessels and/or gear for disposal and will be disposing of them in an environmentally friendly manner.

Additional information on the related programs and contact information can be found on our website.