Unpacking the role of environmental stress and disease in salmon declines.

This program will investigate the role disease plays in salmon declines and the risks posed by open-net salmon farming to wild Pacific salmon. First, our ongoing partnership with the Broughton Archipelago Transition Initiative (BATI) will monitor salmon-farm impacts, serving as a testing ground for monitoring technologies to support Indigenous self-determination. Second, we will expand our work on the west coast of Vancouver Island, casting focus on the impacts of BC’s last major salmon-farm cluster on imperiled populations of Chinook salmon. Third, we will refine strategies for rebuilding of wild-salmon stocks through understanding of cumulative-stressor effects on survival coastwide. By investigating how individual fish respond to various diseases and environmental stressors, we seek to uncover why early marine survival of these populations is so poor, which many biologists consider to be the main driver of the widespread declines in BC’s wild salmon over the past three decades.

Faculty Supervisor:

John Reynolds

Student:

Partner:

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Other services (except public administration); Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program: