Fraser Estuary Connectivity Project makes substantial difference to salmon

Just as we were getting excited about starting our field season to monitor the effectiveness of Raincoast’s Fraser Estuary Connectivity Project, conditions with the pandemic began to get serious and we realized our plans had to change.

We are right in the middle of our exciting initiative to breach the Steveston jetty. Check out the 2nd and 3rd image to see the difference it has made.

Just as we had hoped, our catches at the breach locations increased this year with 1,480 total salmon, including 297 Chinook, 174 sockeye, 420 pink, 20 coho, 569 chum. We even had a few days when we captured all five species of salmon in one set! We captured both ocean-type and stream-type Chinook, and large bursts of pink and sockeye, and captured ocean type Chinook at breach locations in every month from March through August.