Watershed Watch 2023 annual report

March 5, 2024

By: Aaron Hill

Executive Director Aaron Hill

Depending on where you were in 2023, salmon were anywhere from plentiful and thriving to sparse and struggling. I watched a mama grizzly and her two cubs devour an endless buffet of pink and sockeye in a northern B.C. river, and also saw schools of fry dying stranded in hot pools of water on a parched Fraser Valley creek bed.

If there’s one thing we can be sure of as we look back over last year for our 2023 Annual Report, it’s that our natural systems are growing less stable and predictable. Here in B.C., 2023 was an all-too-familiar example of a year in the life of salmon in our warming world. The main feature was the drought affecting more areas of our province more intensely and for longer than any other in our known history. And it’s not over; we are trudging into 2024 under menacingly low snowpacks.

It’s scary for salmon and our advocacy for better watershed management has never felt more urgent. The good news, which you can read in this report, is that we are getting results that are keeping fish alive.

We are forcing our governments to crack down on water wasters, manage water more carefully and bolster our natural defences against drought.

We still have a lot to fight for. Despite poor returns for several salmon runs, we also saw strong returns of pink, coho and Chinook in several rivers across B.C. Families were out fishing, and bears and eagles had full bellies.

We have had some major victories—and we have been frustrated by the slow pace of change at times. We have a lot more work to do. Heading into 2024 we are launching fresh tactics to reduce Alaskan interceptions of B.C. salmon; to defend, protect and restore salmon habitat; and to get more open net-pen salmon farms out of our coastal waters.

Speaking of those dirty farms, I just love that the final month of 2023 saw Premier David Eby saying “the social licence…has expired in B.C.” for fish farms in response to an investigation we undertook with our allies regarding a massive increase in wild fish deaths in B.C. salmon farms.

We’re in it to win it and we couldn’t do it without our amazing allies, supporters and volunteers.

On behalf of the Watershed Watch team: Thanks for being a part of it and here’s to more wins for salmon in 2024.

Read our 2023 Annual Report.

Share This Story!

Watershed Watch 2023 annual report

March 5, 2024

By: Aaron Hill

Executive Director Aaron Hill

Depending on where you were in 2023, salmon were anywhere from plentiful and thriving to sparse and struggling. I watched a mama grizzly and her two cubs devour an endless buffet of pink and sockeye in a northern B.C. river, and also saw schools of fry dying stranded in hot pools of water on a parched Fraser Valley creek bed.

If there’s one thing we can be sure of as we look back over last year for our 2023 Annual Report, it’s that our natural systems are growing less stable and predictable. Here in B.C., 2023 was an all-too-familiar example of a year in the life of salmon in our warming world. The main feature was the drought affecting more areas of our province more intensely and for longer than any other in our known history. And it’s not over; we are trudging into 2024 under menacingly low snowpacks.

It’s scary for salmon and our advocacy for better watershed management has never felt more urgent. The good news, which you can read in this report, is that we are getting results that are keeping fish alive.

We are forcing our governments to crack down on water wasters, manage water more carefully and bolster our natural defences against drought.

We still have a lot to fight for. Despite poor returns for several salmon runs, we also saw strong returns of pink, coho and Chinook in several rivers across B.C. Families were out fishing, and bears and eagles had full bellies.

We have had some major victories—and we have been frustrated by the slow pace of change at times. We have a lot more work to do. Heading into 2024 we are launching fresh tactics to reduce Alaskan interceptions of B.C. salmon; to defend, protect and restore salmon habitat; and to get more open net-pen salmon farms out of our coastal waters.

Speaking of those dirty farms, I just love that the final month of 2023 saw Premier David Eby saying “the social licence…has expired in B.C.” for fish farms in response to an investigation we undertook with our allies regarding a massive increase in wild fish deaths in B.C. salmon farms.

We’re in it to win it and we couldn’t do it without our amazing allies, supporters and volunteers.

On behalf of the Watershed Watch team: Thanks for being a part of it and here’s to more wins for salmon in 2024.

Read our 2023 Annual Report.

Share This Story!

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