Collaborative recovery efforts at the Deadman River in B.C.’s Interior.
Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Pacific Salmon Foundation 2024 Annual Report
2024: All in for salmon
A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
At the Pacific Salmon Foundation, we’re all in for salmon. With 70 per cent of Pacific salmon populations in B.C. and the Yukon below their historical long-term average abundances, our mission is more urgent than ever. In 2024, we advanced bold action through science, restoration, and policy, including a landmark open-net pen ban and the launch of our first State of Salmon Report.
Thanks to our partners, donors, and supporters, PSF is leading change for salmon recovery and resilience.
— Michael Meneer, CEO and President, Pacific Salmon Foundation
Read the full CEO message and download the 2024 Annual Report here.
Pacific Salmon Foundation Financials
2024 Revenue and Expenses
Special thanks to our generous supporters for advancing game-changing work to save and restore wild Pacific salmon.
Strategic Pillars
Salmon Recovery
Salmon Resilience
Systems Transformation
Crews visit Big Silver River, a key sockeye spawning site where funding helped restore river flows after severe flooding and drought. Photo: Brandon Deepwell
PSF's State of Salmon report, the first of its kind, found that 70 per cent of salmon in B.C. and the Yukon are below their historical long-term average abundance. Photo: Fernando Lessa
The BC Conservation Foundation team uses a beach seine near the Puntledge River estuary to tag juvenile salmon before their ocean migration. Photo: Danny Swainson
PSF's herring team in the lab. This multi-year project is researching the role of herring in the salmon food web. Photo: Brandon Deepwell
Collaborative recovery efforts at the Deadman River in B.C.'s Interior. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada
PSF's Wildfire Playbook has been put into action in the Nahatlatch Valley. Photo: Brandon Deepwell
Collecting juvenile salmon to tag them and track their survival throughout their life cycle. Photo: Danny Swainson
PSF’s Michael Meneer tagging fish with Jamieson Atkinson from BC Conservation Foundation. Photo: Sam James
Salmon habitat was compromised in the aftermath of the 2024 landslide at the Chilcotin River, a major tributary of the Fraser River. Photo: Courtesy of the Province of B.C.
Setting up a PIT tag detection system in the Somass River near Port Alberni. Photo: Port Boat House
PSF worked with Boothroyd Indian Band to restore critical salmon habitat. Photo: Brandon Deepwell
PSF found that 86 per cent of steelhead population groups in British Columbia face major conservation concerns, where data were available. Photo: Chase White
PSF, Ha’oom Fisheries Society, and partners installed a new tag detection system in the Somass River to monitor at-risk Chinook salmon on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Photo: Port Boat House
PSF crews surveying for herring spawn habitat near Victoria. Photo: Brandon Deepwell
DFO and Boothroyd Indian Band are helping improve conditions for juvenile salmon in the Nahatlatch River by implementing post-wildfire recovery techniques, supported by PSF. Photo: Brandon Deepwell/Oscar Beardmore-Gray
PSF's State of Salmon report found that chum salmon (pictured) and steelhead are doing the worst of all species. However, the report also shows signs of hope. Photo: Fernando Lessa
Salmon Recovery
35 YEARS OF COMMUNITY-LED RECOVERY INITIATIVES
2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the Community Salmon Program – a cornerstone initiative that has been with the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) since the organization’s inception. The Community Salmon Program awards grants to First Nations, stewardship groups, conservation organizations, and schools to advance local salmon restoration initiatives.
With a $118,625 grant from the Community Salmon Program’s 2024 cycle, the Skeetchestn Indian Band has restored salmon habitat in the Deadman River, a key Thompson River tributary supporting pink, coho, Chinook, and steelhead.
Decades of logging and recent wildfires have drastically altered the Lower Deadman. In turn, cottonwood forests – vital for stabilizing banks, providing shade, and sheltering salmon – have been lost.
In partnership with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the University of British Columbia, and the Okanagan Nation Alliance, Skeetchestn Indian Band is reintroducing cottonwoods to the Lower Deadman.
In 2024, the team planted nearly 400 cottonwood tree seedlings, as well as more than 600 tree stakes to help stabilize young trees. Additionally, they restored more than 5,000 square metres of riparian, instream, and floodplain habitat.
PSF stewards funds from the Salmon Conservation Stamp on behalf of DFO, along with generous donations, to support hundreds of projects through the Community Salmon Program. Special thanks to the Alastair and Diana Gillespie Foundation, AltaGas, BC Hydro, Domtar, Enbridge, Grassroots Conservation Fund, Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services, Methanex, Mosaic Forest Management, Neptune Terminals, Pembina, Reel Time Fishing Charters and Marine Tours, Seaspan, SECURE Waste Infrastructure, SJ Foundation, Sutherland Foundation, Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee, Trans Mountain, and Wolrige Foundation.
“Sitting on PSF’s Grants Committee, I’ve seen the investment the Community Salmon Program makes into communities across the province, and what it does for people and kids. It pulls communities together and creates education and awareness about salmon. It’s really important to continue the Community Salmon Program into the future.” – Murray Ned, Executive Director, Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance and PSF Board Member
$2,155,158 in funding approved | 177 local projects | $6.89 from the purchase of every Salmon Conservation Stamp is invested in community projects
Salmon Resilience
SALMON FARMS BANNED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
In June 2024, the Government of Canada announced a ban on open-net pen Atlantic salmon farms in British Columbia by 2029.
As a leader in research on the risks of pathogen transmission from farmed to wild salmon, the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) supports this decision to prioritize the health of wild salmon. Since 2013, PSF and its partners have built a growing body of dozens of independent, peer-reviewed publications on the risks open-net pen salmon farms pose to wild salmon.
PSF researchers, in collaboration with many partners including the Broughton Aquaculture Transition Initiative (BATI), a project led by the Mamalilikulla, ‘Na̱mg̱is and Kwikwasut’inux Haxwa’mis First Nations, have studied dozens of infectious agents and risks of spillover from farmed to wild salmon.
A peer-reviewed study published in December 2024, based on monitoring conducted under BATI’s leadership, revealed that the odds of detecting pathogens were 4.3 times higher at active salmon farms than at inactive sites, and even higher for some pathogens of concern. This finding reaffirms that Atlantic salmon farms amplify pathogens and transmit them into B.C., creating exposure risks for wild Pacific salmon migrating through those waters.
Special thanks to the North Family Foundation for their support of PSF’s Salmon Health Program.
“The Pacific Salmon Foundation’s independent science has been instrumental in providing evidence-based data and research that First Nations can use when making decisions about the future of open-net pen salmon farms in their territories. As legal counsel to several First Nations, I’ve seen firsthand how PSF’s research has helped assess potential risks to wild salmon and inform decisions about their lands, waters, and resources.” – Brenda Gaertner, Senior Counsel, Mandell Pinder LLP, and PSF Board Emeritus.
Following years of research and dozens of peer-reviewed publications, the federal government declared a ban on open-net pen Atlantic salmon farms by 2029.
Systems Transformation
STATE OF SALMON
With more than 10,000 distinct salmon populations across British Columbia and the Yukon, determining the state of salmon is complicated. Yet it’s key to knowing where action is needed and how to best target efforts to help salmon recover.
In 2024, the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) released a State of Salmon report – the first of its kind to assess the state of each species of Pacific salmon and steelhead across B.C. and the Yukon. Before this report, mixed messages ranging from record-high salmon runs to unprecedented fishing closures often painted a confusing picture.
Grounded in data, PSF’s first-ever State of Salmon report shows widespread declines in salmon coupled with encouraging signs of recovery for some species in some regions.
Overall, more than 70 per cent of salmon are below their historical long-term average. Of all species, chum salmon and steelhead are struggling the most.
However, the report also shows signs of hope. For example, coho salmon from the Fraser River and Chinook salmon from Vancouver Island and Mainland Inlets are above their long-term averages.
Learn more: stateofsalmon.ca
State of Salmon
Photo: Brandon Deepwell
“The State of Salmon report underscores the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s efforts to modernize the systems that manage salmon in British Columbia. The challenges facing salmon today are far more complex than they were when these frameworks were first established decades ago. With access to data-driven insights like never before, we now have the tools, and the responsibility, to take decisive action to protect and rebuild salmon for generations to come.” – Michael Meneer, CEO and President, Pacific Salmon Foundation
In SIX species and NINE regions, 70% of salmon are below their long-term average abundance
Looking forward
CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE CEO
The Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF)’s strategic plan will guide our work over the next five years. We will continue leading salmon recovery, building resilience, and modernizing salmon management systems and approaches during an era underscored by the challenges of climate change and the importance of reconciliation.
Our ongoing priorities include:
- Expanding the reach of our climate emergency response efforts
- Working to address threats within our control, such as log booms in estuaries that increase salmon vulnerability to seals, and 6PPD-quinone, a tire chemical linked to coho salmon deaths
- Influencing the open-net pen Atlantic salmon farm transition process by contributing science and research
- Evolving our community grants program to foster innovative and strategic ideas for salmon
- Advancing the use of innovative technology, such as Salmon Fit-Chips, which help measure salmon health
- Seeking additional opportunities to collaborate with Indigenous partners
- Identifiying watersheds to catalyze recovery and resilience planning using the Made-in-B.C. Salmon Recovery Model
- Continuing to report out new data and information on the State of Salmon
- Planning the 2026 B.C. Salmon Recovery and Resilience Conference, building on the success of the inaugural 2024 event
Together with our many partners, PSF looks forward to advancing these objectives, and more.
We are honoured to work alongside a passionate and dedicated salmon community, including First Nations, researchers, streamkeepers, and countless others. The future for salmon is bright when we bring our knowledge, commitment, and hearts together.
Through meaningful collaboration, we create real change, and renewed hope, for Pacific salmon.
– Michael Meneer, CEO and President, Pacific Salmon Foundation
Thank You!
The progress made for salmon in 2024 would not be possible without you – the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s growing network of partners, supporters, and donors.
Special thanks to:
Each individual who has made a donation in support of PSF’s work to save and restore wild Pacific salmon
1,003 new donors, including individuals, companies, and foundations
450+ individuals who attended the inaugural B.C. Salmon Recovery and Resilience Conference
Hundreds of sponsors and supporters who raised funds at PSF events
Thousands of salmon supporters that celebrated Wild Salmon Day and Salmon Spotting
Province of British Columbia
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund Society