Tell the Federal Government to Restore Wild Salmon Monitoring Programs.
DFO is once again making deep cuts to salmon monitoring in British Columbia.
We’ve heard from charter patrol guardians who have had their monitoring days cut by nearly 70%, while others have not had their contracts renewed at all.
Because DFO hasn’t disclosed the full scope of the cuts, it’s difficult to know how many rivers and fisheries may be affected.
This matters because fisheries managers rely on these boots-on-the-ground counts to know how many salmon are returning. Without them, they are forced to either risk overfishing vulnerable stocks or close fisheries that could otherwise support Indigenous, recreational, and commercial harvest opportunities.
The situation is already dire. A recent peer-reviewed study found that salmon monitoring in B.C. has declined by roughly 50% since the 1980s, creating the largest data gap in more than 70 years.
Even worse, these cuts to salmon monitoring are coming just as the federal government is fast-tracking major industrial projects like mines and pipelines that will destroy and poison salmon habitat.
The good news? We’ve won this fight before.
Last year, Watershed Watch and our allies raised the alarm about similar cuts. We got the story out, and helped more than 650 people send emails to federal decision-makers. Now we need your help again.
Send a message to Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson, Prime Minister Mark Carney, your Member of Parliament, and federal fisheries critics. Tell them to restore salmon monitoring for 2026, and provide stable, ongoing funding for the people counting fish and monitoring our fisheries.
