Salmon conservation initiatives launched in British Columbia

The Canadian federal government and various partners are launching initiatives to support salmon conservation and management in British Columbia. The federal government has announced over $50 million in contracts to construct three salmon hatcheries on or near traditional First Nations territories. These include a $38 million project for the Upper Fraser River Salmon Conservation Hatchery near Prince George, two $7.5 million contracts for facilities in the central Interior and the Skeena River system, and a hatchery near Hanceville. These facilities aim to raise more than one million juvenile Chinook and sockeye salmon annually.

In a parallel effort to enhance Indigenous sovereignty, a new multi-year genomics collaboration has been established to provide First Nations with salmon genetic analysis tools and infrastructure. Funded by the First Nations Fisheries Council’s Indigenous Stewardship Fund, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, and Genome British Columbia, the project aims to decentralize genetic stock identification. By developing open-source tools, the initiative seeks to reduce reliance on a single federal laboratory, allowing First Nations organizations to manage their own research and data to better meet local fisheries management needs.