Pacific Coast Salmon and Climate Initiative

Summary: The Challenge: Salmon Are Extremely Vulnerable to Climate Change The environmental, cultural, and economic health of the Pacific coast (defined in this initiative as California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) is inextricably tied to the health of its salmon populations. Unfortunately, climate change impacts are accelerating through the range of Pacific salmon, stressing ESA-listed salmon populations, and undoubtedly contributing to the question: “why are both salmon recovery and fisheries management efforts faltering across much of their range on the west coast?” A future in which resilient salmon can flourish in the face of climate change depends on forward looking management, improved scientific understanding, and significantly increased collaboration between diverse salmon recovery players. Failure to take proactive action threatens 26,700 fishing jobs and $3.4 billion in annual economic output in S.E. Alaska, Washington, and Oregon; the federal treaty rights and traditions of Tribal Nations; and billions of dollars in federal, state, and tribal dollars invested in watershed recovery plans, hatchery production, and billions in incoming dollars resulting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and recovery of ESA listed southern resident killer whales.

Our Solution: A Salmon and Climate Initiative

To promote the long-term resilience of Pacific salmon populations in the face of climate change, Long Live the Kings (LLTK) and partners are convening salmon recovery leaders and experts across Tribal Nations, government, academia, NGOs, and industry in a Pacific coast Salmon and Climate Initiative (SCI) to prioritize, fund, and implement the science-based solutions needed to protect and restore resilient salmon populations. Modelled after the successful Salish Sea Marine Survival Project (https://marinesurvivalproject.com/) founded and led by LLTK and the Pacific Salmon Foundation, this new collaborative initiative seeks to work with NOAA Science Center staff and others to organize existing salmon and habitat data and identify gaps and uncertainties across their range, model current and future watershed and coastal conditions by incorporating the best available climate and salmon life history data to improve freshwater production and return forecasting and to recommend regional modifications to restoration, hatchery management, and fisheries. An official launch is planned for Q1 of 2023 with a Pacific Salmon and Climate scoping workshop (to be listed on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development activity calendar), with full-scale salmon adaptation research beginning in Q4 of 2023.

Relevant SCI Benefits for SOST and its Members By promoting salmon populations that can remain resilient and thrive in the face of climate change, the SCI promises to:

• Work closely with decision makers to ensure the best available science drives climate adaptation planning for salmon recovery and fisheries management
• Improve and maintain regional freshwater and coastal monitoring, data management, and modeling technologies to help understand and mitigate growing climate impacts on salmonids
• Center and incorporate the needs and Traditional Knowledge of Tribal Nations in Pacific salmon resilience efforts
• Disseminate findings broadly to managers and communities tasked with salmon management
• Coordinate with and link watershed and costal work on climate to high seas efforts focused on supporting stock management by the Pacific Salmon Commission and the Basin-scale Events to Coastal Impacts (BECI) study, an endorsed project of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Sector: NGO
Organization: Long Live the Kings
POC: Jacques White, jwhite@lltk.org