Wednesday January 7, 2026
Government of Canada —
Throughout the year, British Columbia’s groundfish trawl fleet sets out into the Pacific Ocean to harvest thousands of tons of fish. This trawl fishery, ranging from small owner-operated boats to large industrial ships, plays a vital role in supplying fish to domestic and international markets. While trawling is an efficient way to catch fish, it can also unintentionally intercept other fish swimming at similar ocean depths, in particular Chinook salmon when trawling for fish mid-water, such as Pacific Hake and Walleye Pollock. Since many populations of Chinook salmon in southern B.C. are of conservation concern, accurate monitoring and biological sampling of salmon bycatch has become a priority for First Nations, fishery managers, and stakeholders.
Recognizing the need for better bycatch data and stronger safeguards for Pacific salmon, we have been working with the trawl industry, environmental organizations and monitoring providers in B.C. since 2022 to launch a salmon-specific bycatch monitoring and sampling program, with support from the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI). Prior to this, salmon bycatch was estimated and submitted by fishers and lacked information about the origin of the salmon. With the launch of this program, our goal was to accurately identify which Chinook salmon stocks were being caught as bycatch in the option A trawl fishery, and in what quantities, to better understand potential impacts on populations of conservation concern.