A recent article from The Narwhal examines how declining wild salmon populations are affecting food security, cultural practices and community life for First Nations across British Columbia.

For generations, Indigenous communities have harvested and preserved salmon to sustain families through the winter. Today, fewer returning salmon, rising costs and increasingly limited fishing opportunities are making that tradition harder to maintain. The article reports that the Fraser River sockeye return was estimated at 2.8 million fish as of August 25, well below the 7.7 million forecast the previous winter.

First Nations are responding by creating spaces where community members can gather, process food and pass traditional knowledge to younger generations. The Skuppah Indian Band’s food security centre provides equipment for canning, smoking, freeze-drying and storing salmon and other traditional foods. Community fish camps and canning days in Nlaka’pamux and Cheam territories are also helping families access nutritious food while preserving harvesting and preparation practices.

These gatherings are about more than food. They strengthen cultural connections, support community resilience and affirm the inherent and constitutionally protected rights of First Nations to fish and harvest in their traditional territories. Similar workshops in Vancouver are helping Indigenous people living away from their home territories access salmon and learn traditional food preparation skills.

The article is a powerful reminder that protecting wild Pacific salmon is inseparable from protecting Indigenous food security, culture, health and rights. With salmon populations under pressure from climate change, habitat loss and other human-caused threats, governments must take every reasonable step to reduce avoidable risks and give wild salmon the best possible chance to recover.

Canada’s commitment to remove open-net pen salmon farms from British Columbia’s coastal waters by 2029 is one important part of that responsibility. Following through on the transition will help protect wild salmon and the First Nations communities that have depended on them since time immemorial.

Read the full article at The Narwhal.