Wild salmon stocks are collapsing before our eyes.

BC’s wild salmon populations have plummeted by 70 percent since the 1980s, largely from overfishing. [1-2] On top of that, University of British Columbia researchers say that rising water temperatures due to climate change could reduce the amount of Pacific salmon by a further 30 percent. [3]

Shockingly, a Simon Fraser University study just revealed that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is failing to uphold Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy and hasn’t been monitoring 50 per cent of the salmon populations it’s supposed to. [4-5] Without this salmon-saving research, DFO could blindly allow overfishing to wipe out wild salmon from fragile streams.

DFO already has the money to research which wild salmon populations are safe to fish and which aren’t — all they have to do is allocate one percent of its $1.4 billion Pacific Region budget to the project. [6] All we have to do is demand they do it, and if enough of us speak up, we can convince them to properly fund wild salmon research.

Tell Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc to follow through on Canadian policy and invest in salmon-saving research before it’s too late.

Wild salmon are a pillar of the Pacific Ocean’s ecosystem, Canada’s economy, and BC First Nations peoples’ cultural history. By failing to properly monitor and gather data on them, the DFO is signing a death warrant for wild salmon. Had DFO been monitoring the wild salmon as per Canadian policy, we could have saved 42 percent of threatened populations through better management that gives vulnerable populations a chance to rebound. [7]

The wild salmon fishing industry contributes $500 million and 4,000 jobs to Canada’s economy. [8] Losing BC salmon would be a crushing blow — and First Nations food-fisheries are already closing because of devastated wild salmon stocks.[9] Without the information promised from the DFO, we don’t even know where it’s safe for the remaining fisheries to operate.

Sign the petition to demand DFO do the right thing and put more money into salmon-saving research.

We’ve won key battles for wild salmon before. Last year, more than 15,000 of you sent in messages to the Trudeau Liberals demanding they take action to prevent the transfer of diseased Atlantic salmon into open-net pens on the B.C. coast. Your pressure worked. If enough of us speak up now, we can win this time too.

#SaveBCSalmon

Sources: 
[1] Record low salmon monitoring earns federal government a failing grade for conservation says SFU experts. http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2017/08/record-low-salmon-monitoring-earns-federal-government-a-failing-grade-for-conservation-says-sfu-experts.html
[2] Amid closure, BC salmon fisheries study finds feds failed monitor stocks. https://www.desmog.ca/2017/08/21/amid-closure-b-c-salmon-fisheries-study-finds-feds-failed-monitor-stocks
[3] See [2]
[4] See [1]
[5-8] See [2]
[9] See [1]