Protecting Canada’s aquatic ecosystems

Canada is a land of water, with more lakes, coastline, and wetlands than any other country in the world. Yet over the past several decades, North America’s wild Pacific salmon and steelhead populations have experienced record low returns due to a warming ocean, decades of habitat destruction, overharvesting, and the impacts of fish farming.

Since 1998, SFU’s Aquatic Research Cooperative (ARC) Institute—formerly the Cooperative Resource Management Institute—has been engaged in the recovery of salmon and other at-risk aquatic species. Through the thoughtful support of Canadian philanthropists committed to the conservation of Canada’s environment, the ARC Institute is fulfilling one of its key mandates to train the next generation of applied aquatic ecosystem scientists, environmental managers, and policymakers to lead through research, innovation, and collaboration.

Ensuring equity of Pacific salmon fisheries in B.C.’s Central Coast

In March 2025, the ARC Institute sent Lindsay Begemann, a master’s student in resource and environmental management, to Bella Coola in B.C.’s Central Coast to examine whether the closing of a fishery targeting chum salmon has allowed for local fish populations to return. The research encompasses the decline of non-targeted species like steelhead trout, sockeye salmon, and chinook salmon, which would have been caught incidentally alongside chum.

The focus of Lindsay’s work, which was identified as a top priority for the federal Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, aims to restore Pacific salmon as a cornerstone of the culture, economy, and sustenance of Indigenous communities while addressing the challenges of low fish returns in the face of climate and ecological uncertainties.

During her time in Bella Coola, she met with First Nations and government partners to better understand the pressures of fishery closures on their communities, and explore what an economically viable, sustainable, and equitable fishery in this region could look like.

“My research is deeply place-based, so this trip was invaluable in grounding my project in community priorities and hearing from the locals directly affected by fisheries decisions,” says Lindsay. “Supporting this work ensures that our research is relevant to those most impacted by management decisions.”

Understanding the impacts of human-caused pressures on our ecosystems

Headwaters, which are the small streams and channels that form the beginning and highest end of a watershed, are rarely protected from forest harvest in B.C. Yet previous research has shown that removing trees right to the bank of these small streams—leaving limited to no shade covering the water’s surface—can significantly warm downstream water temperatures and harm temperature-sensitive aquatic species like Pacific salmon that live there.

Under current regulations, nearly half of B.C. headwaters are harvested right to the water’s edge. Christian Carson, also a master’s student in resource and environmental management, is gathering data that highlights the importance of these areas of watersheds, especially in Interior B.C. where communities are already experiencing the impacts of increased drought and elevated temperatures due to a changing climate.

Christian says that making policy changes to human stressors within our control, like forest harvest, can lead to positive outcomes for aquatic species such as young chinook and coho salmon that depend on these habitats. New and more holistic planning projects that consider the whole watersheds from headwater streams to the lower most reaches at the river mouths, including the North Thompson watershed where Christian conducted his research, are now being piloted across B.C.

“My research findings could significantly impact the management of headwaters in the North Thompson by influencing how and where headwaters are protected, and thereby safeguarding aquatic species downstream of these areas,” says Christian. “These considerations will advance forest management in a way that supports species and ecosystem values and benefits communities.”

Delivering world-class education and real-world experience

Thanks to generous donor support, the ARC Institute is empowered to provide enriching learning and field work experiences to our future leaders in conservation efforts and policy.

Both Lindsay and Christian credit their incredible SFU professors and supervisors for the knowledge, guidance, and connections that they bring, including their advice on how to ground research in local issues and scale them up to inform scientific research, leading to real-world conservation measures that protect our planet.

“We are grateful to donors of the ARC Institute who care just as much as we do about preserving Canada’s environment,” says Jonathan Moore, director of the ARC Institute and the Liber Ero Chair of Coastal Science and Management. “Because of their support, we can train and develop researchers to generate actionable science that will make a positive impact across B.C.’s ecosystems and communities.”