Wednesday Dec. 8, 2021 marked two years since I created this website as a way to make information on the conservation status of some key populations of these venerable species more accessible and transparent. Try looking at any BC Government or federal government website on fish and fisheries and you will see what I mean!
Since Dec. 8, 2019 a total of 5,183 users have viewed the page a total of 8,696 times. Canadians (81%) and Americans (17%) have been the most frequent visitors, but folks from Asia, Oceania, Europe, Central and South America have visited the site. Many of the same folks (16%) return to the site again and again.
I am very pleased that so many have taken an interest in, and perhaps now have a greater awareness of, the plight of our Pacific salmon and trout.
One visitor has written: "Thank you for your amazing blog. I am currently writing briefings ..., and your links have all the information I need."
Let the information flow continue!
July 7, 2026: 5,183 users/8,696 page views/>13,000 events
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Below are brief summary statements about updates I receive on the status of particular runs of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout in British Columbia and Yukon waters. To cut to the chase, I have kept commentary to a minimum and just provided numbers and the source where you can find additional information about methods, threats, etc. If these figures bother you, let it be known to your local MLA, MP, the new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (Joanne Thompson; min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca), the federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (Julie Dabrusin - ec.ministre-minister.ec@canada.ca; all former Ministers have refused to list salmon and steelhead trout at risk of extinction under Canada's Species at Risk Act, SARA), the BC Minister of Environment and Parks (Tamara Davidson - ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca), or the BC Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewarsdhip (Randene Neill - WLRS.minister@gov.bc.ca.
As each year's final totals come in, I will replace the previous years' totals.
For regular updates, between annual summaries, scroll below and look for 
.
What are the root causes of these declines and what can be done about them? These are the billion dollar questions that cannot be answered here easily.
Certainly climate change and a changing ocean, habitat loss and degradation, disease and pathogens, "freak" accidents like the 2019 Big Bar rockslide,
and overharvest (in directed fisheries and from incidental "by-catch") have all contributed to the declines.
One recent summary of trends and the particular role of climate change can be found HERE. Not only do these declines result
in the loss of "made in BC biodiversity", they have significant economic impacts. The total numbers of salmon of all species caught (commerical and
recreational fisheries) in BC waters has declined from almost 15.6 million fish in 2013 to 1.4 million fish in 2019 (commerical catches alone totalled an average of ~23 million fishes annually
in the 1970s).
Catch statistics over time can be found HERE (look for "Canadian Salmon Catch and Enhanced Salmon Production").
Pacific Salmon Foundation's latest State of the Salmon Report, Oct 14, 2026.
One stop shopping for status over the most recent generation of BC's and the Yukon's Pacific salmon.
Click HERE.
Key conclusion :"Approximately half of all salmon populations are below their long-term average. Viewed over the longer term, Pacific salmon are in decline. Yet we have seen incremental improvements over three years of reporting, with some populations moving from just below to just above their long-term averages."
Yukon River Chinook and chum salmon, Oct 22, 2026.
This year's sixteenth in-season report for Yukon River Chinook and chum salmon is in and things are looking a tad better relative to recent years.
With 100% of the run complete through the lower river, 103,495 Chinook
salmon have passed by the lower river sonar station and 35,663 have passed the
upper river Eagle site . The Pilot Station count is almost twice that from last year, and 73% of the the recent
10 year average. Nine hundred and forty fish have passed the Whitehorse fishway (compared to 794 at same time last year and 571 as the recent 10-year
average, 99% of run over) which is up considerably with more to arrive yet (about 50% are hatchery fish). The fish at Pilot Station are also about 3% smaller (shorter) than the 1998-2024 average length with 2% more females than typical. With a "rebuilding target" of 71,000
Canadian-origin Chinook salmon, and the run well below this point (18,000 to - 52,000 are expected), no harvesting of any kind is likely in the Yukon (or Alaska).
An interesting article in Science magazine outlines efforts to understand the likely role of parasitic infection and warming water temperatures in declining Chinook salmon runs in the Yukon River.
Chum fall run salmon counts at Pilot Station are complete and are up substantially and are estimated at 911,659 up from 275,319 at this time last year and exceeding the recent 10 year average of 592,925 fish. With 96% of the run complete, 22,670 fish have been counted entering the Procupine River, up from 10,759 last year and the longer term average is 22,835 fish for this date. That said, genetic estimates of Fall Run fish at Pilot Station suggest that more than 41,156 are expected at the Fishing Branch River (a Canadian tributary of the Porcupine River) eventually (and 110,466 are expected for the Canadian portion of the mainstem Yukon River (i.e., upstream of Eagle, AK). Counts at the Fishing Branch River have been suspended owing to high water levels.
This week's report for the season can be viewed HERE
Interior Fraser River summer steelhead trout, Oct 15, 2026.
The first estimates of test-fishery (salmon) spring 2027 spawning escapements for the Thompson River complex and Chilcotin River steelhead trout are in. The estimate for the Thompson complex is down to 43 fish (95% credible interval 16-380).
The current estimate for the Chilcotin River is 20 (95% credible interval 7-183). These estimates for the Thompson and Chilcotin rivers are the lowest and third lowest, respectively, in 50 (Thompson) and 56 (Chilcotin) years of surveys.
The recent report can be viewed HERE
Fraser River sockeye salmon August 28th, 2026. The seventh and final 2026 report has been released. The pre-season forecast (probability of 50%) was for 7,743,000 fish to return, close to the most recent 30 year average (p25 = 3,767,000 fish, p75 = 16,328,000 fish). Marine test fishing results indicate that Fraser River bound fish now consist mostly (96%) of Summer Run and Late Run fish fish (45,900 Early Stuart, 195,700 Early Summer, 1,372,800 Summer, and 264,000 Late Run fish have passed Mission on the lower river). Runs of Early Summer, Summer, and Late run fish are tracking lower than expected and the adopted run size is 220,000 fish (the p50 was ~1.1 million fish) for Early Summer fish. The adopted run sizes for Summer and Late Run fish are 1.75 and 1.0 million fish, respectively (with p50s of 4.3 and 2.2 million, respectively). The in-season total run size now is expected to be about 3.01 million, about 39% of the pre-season p50 expectation. By contrast, last year's final run size was estimated as 220% greater than the p50, illustrating the complexity of run size prediction over a 2-3 month return season. Currently, fish have switched back to approaching the Fraser River via Johnstone Strait rather than the Strait of Juan due Fuca.
On August 27th, the Fraser River water discharge at Hope was about 24% lower than average for this date. The temperature of the Fraser River at Hope on August 24th was 20.5oC, which is 3.0oC higher than average for this date.
This week's report for the season can be viewed HERE
Follow the runs' progress HERE. Click on "Mission Hydroacoustics" at the top.
Skeena River summer steelhead trout, Oct 7, 2026.
Continued good news on the Skeena. "Tyee Test Fishery operations began on June 10th. The cumulative Skeena River summer steelhead index to Sept 26th is 184.5. The average for this date = 105.58 (range: 22.29 (2021) to 264.84 (1998)). The escapement for Skeena summer run steelhead to Sept 26th is estimated to be 45,203, the average to this date = 25,867 (range: 5,461 to 64,886). To this date, the 2026 steelhead abundance estimate ranks as the 9th highest year out of 71 years of operation.
Upper Sustut Weir operations commenced operations on August 1st, to Sept 30th , 1,903 summer steelhead have migrated past the fence, with a mean of 724 to the same date (range: 60 (23) to 1,903 (2026))."
Source: BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Smithers, BC.
North Coast and Skeena River Roundup, October, 2026.
A nice video round-up courtesy of Skeena Wild. Click HERE.
Okanagan River (Columbia River) Fish Counts. August 27, 2026. With the run basically complete, a
total of 53,427 sockeye salmon have been counted through Wells Dam,
the last dam on the Columbia River before fish reach the Okanagan River (located 26 km upstream) and have a chance to enter Canada another 137 km upstream.
This is down a bit from 72,352 fish counted at about the same time last year (a total of 194,053 fish is the recent 10 year average). By way of comparison, returns
of American shad (Alosa sapidissima), a fish native to the east coast that was introduced to the Sacramento River and which has subsequently spread to the Columbia River
(fish are occassionaly found in the Fraser River also), topped 2.8 million! American shad are counted downstream at Bonnville Dam and do not move as far upstream
as Wells Dam.
See HERE for updates (scroll to near the bottom).
March 18, 2023. Parliamentary Committee Report on DFO Science released.
An all federal party parliamentary committee was struck to investigate how DFO conducts and communicates scientific research in the service of making decisions regarding Canada's public fishery resources.
It does not make for pretty reading.
The report is quite critical of how DFO conducts some research (other aspects of its research program are justifiably laudable) and, most importantly, how such information is reviewed and transmitted to both the public and the Minister in order to make decisions on various fisheries. The overall conclusion is that the current processes are quite damaging to efforts to sustain wild Pacific salmon populations, particularly with respect to DFO Aquaculture Management's overly 'cosy' releationship with the fish-farming industry. You can read the report (and its 49 recommendations) HERE. Regional DFO Director General Rebecca Reid's response to the committee's conclusion of DFO's conflicted mandate (made by others many times - see HERE) that DFO: "...understands its role and responsibilities for the management of wild salmon and aquaculture and does so appropriately" speaks volumes. Talk about out of touch!
All this in the wake of the deeply flawed DFO report on fish farms and sea lice incidence described as "a scientific sin" in a letter signed by 16 academics and scientists independent of DFO (I was not one of them, but I agree completely with them and independently came to many of the same conclusions on how poor the DFO analyses and report are - see HERE and the previous update just below) and the critical report by the Auditor General's Office on how DFO manages the aquatic species at risk file (see below also).
If there was ever a time for fundamental change in how DFO operates and what its mandates are it is now. The Parliamentary Committee has concluded the same thing. In particular their Recommendation 41 states:
"Given the conflict of interest between DFO’s mandate relating to aquaculture versus the application of the precautionary principle and the ongoing crisis for the health of wild Pacific salmon stocks, that the government implement, on the West Coast only, Recommendation #3 in the Cohen Commission report on the state of wild salmon: “The Government of Canada should remove from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ mandate the promotion of salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product.”
Just to be be clear this is the second time that this fundamental restructuring of DFO has been recommended.
Come on - Just do it!!
Auditor-General's Office Report on Protecting Aquatic Species at Risk. Canada's Office of the Auditor General has just released its
report on protecting aquatic species at risk (including salmon and steelhead). One of its major conclusions (page 29) is that: "...Fisheries and
Oceans Canada, in collaboration with others, did not adequately protect selected aquatic species assessed as at risk. For the areas we examined,
Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not adequately contribute to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water)...". You can read the full report and recommendations (all of which DFO agreed with) HERE.
Have a comment or want to be informed of updates? etaylor@zoology.ubc.ca