Oceans Update - September 2025

We’ve been waiting anxiously to see what effect the removal of salmon farms would have on the returns of wild Pacific salmon. We were particularly interested in the sockeye, once numbering in the tens of millions each year. 

The picture has been pretty grim since the beginning of the century, with returns (blue line) often falling below the abundance of the parent generation (grey line). From 2014 to 2020, returns were lower than brood year abundance and lower than forecast (gold line) in every year, in all four cycles of Fraser sockeye. This continued and deepened the already sharp downward trend that was evident from the late 1990’s, when commercial salmon farming took hold on our coast. 

In 2021, we see returns more than double the brood year abundance. The brood year was itself less than half of its brood year. The 2021 return, while promising, was still 1 million fish or 30 per cent short of the decadal average for this cycle. 

This is the 2025 cycle of salmon, currently estimated to be returning at nearly 10 million fish. That is over two-and-a-half times the decadal average and in fact, the best return on this cycle of sockeye since 1997. 

 
No similar increases were seen in the Adams River or dominant cycle in 2022.  It again failed to meet either forecast or brood year abundance, tempering our expectations for next year’s returns. 

In 2023, however, returns were nearly three times higher than the parent generation. 

In 2024, overall returns were about 100,000 higher than the parent generation.  Looking more deeply into 2024, we can see that certain populations returned at abundances well above the parent generation. Overall, abundances remain low, but the rebuilding potential for these populations is clearly demonstrated. 

So, what does it all mean for the impact of salmon farm removal? It is of course extremely difficult to say, given so little data. Farms in the Discovery Islands were largely empty at the end of 2020; those in the Broughton had been reduced by half by 2021, when the fish returning in 2024 went to sea as juveniles. Certainly, the body condition and lice loads on the juveniles in 2021 were observed by Salmon Coast Field Station to be vastly improved over previous years, with 96% fewer sea lice. The same held true in 2022, when today’s returning fish went to sea. By that time, not only the Discovery Islands but most of the Broughton was clear of salmon farms. 

What can be said without question is that marine survival has improved over what we’ve been seeing for more than two decades. It can also be observed that this has occurred over a period of unusually warm ocean temperatures, exceptionally warm river temperatures, frequently low river flows and despite the interference of a number of landslides creating siltation and physical barriers to migration. This is to say nothing of the ongoing pollution of rivers and lakes critical to spawning success. 

The improvement in returns over this very short space of time is just the first evidence we have that something beneficial to Fraser sockeye has happened. The fish are clearly up to the task of rebuilding if we give them half a chance.  

Every expedition poses its unique challenges. For me, this year’s was sand + wind. By the end of a week, sand had infiltrated everything up to and including the saltshaker. Sand under my contacts, embedded in my scalp, pooling in the tent…I find I have a strong preference for beaches with small, weathered pebbles. They are seldom picked up on a summer wind and it’s easy to evict from the tent. 

This year, with only enough funding for a single trip, we decided to go to the North Coast Trail. We hadn’t been east of Laura Creek in years past and hikers were often telling us that the beaches at the beginning of the trail were loaded with debris. “Loaded” is of course a relative term. If they’d seen what we’ve seen, they’d have said, “moderately impacted”, but debris still needed picking up! 

We were able to send out three teams, to Laura Creek, Shuttleworth Bight and Nahwitti River. At the outset, I want to acknowledge and thank Living Oceans Director and longstanding volunteer Eric Granter, who agreed to lead one team; and David Jensen, also a volunteer and all-round backcountry expert, who led another.  

This is not to diminish the skills or commitment of any of the 15 others who stepped forward to help this year—they are all amazing! But it is a great comfort to be able to entrust the welfare of volunteers to other leaders and know that everyone will be safe and happy. And I also know that the whole team will join me in thanking Terry Grantner and Diana Brubaker for stepping up to help with the food, so that nobody was stuck with my cooking for a whole week. 

Team 1, at Nahwitti River, worked hardest to gather the lightest load. Eric posits that Cape Sutil must shelter Nahwitti and Skinner Creek from the worst of debris influx. Still, they filled 7 lift bags and hiked long distances over extremely challenging trails to do so. (But they had the nicest campsite, so there were compensations.) Noteworthy was the fact that they found Zim Kingston debris at both sites—it’s been washing around out there for 3 years now! 

Team 3 at Laura Creek collected the most, filling 18 lift bags and roping up a huge piece of industrial plastic as well. Of course, they weren’t content to stay on the single beach, but worked their way eastward toward the Team 1 at Shuttleworth. 

Shuttleworth…where there was SO MUCH SAND.  The beach stretches fully 2 km and then there’s a bit of a scamper to the east and two more beaches. We filled 14 bags and roped up a full-size freezer that was leaking its foam insulation all over the beach. 

We cleared all three beaches in a single day’s lift operations, then had our gear and ourselves lifted out to the road. There, we still had the task of consolidating the debris so that each bag held only one kind of recyclable plastic or landfill. It is well said that ‘many hands make light the work’ and also that ‘knowing the restaurants in Port Hardy will close soon makes fast the work’! It was a very long day, but we made it back in just enough time to get fabulous pizzas from Mo’s before he closed. 

Photo caption: ED Karen Wristen was actually grateful that there weren’t hundreds of crabs needing their carapaces measured—they're slippery, squirmy beasts! 

We’ve been tracking European Green Crab incursions into Northwest Vancouver Island for some time now. We first noticed them in Sea Otter Cove, where they were devastating the formerly extensive eelgrass beds. An invasive species native to Europe and Africa, these crabs have travelled the world, outcompeting native crabs and wreaking havoc with habitat. 

We think they arrived in Sea Otter Cove as early as 2016, when we noticed the tide line: it looked bright orange from a distance. On close observation, the wrack was filled with thousands of tiny Dungeness crabs, each with a hole punched through its shell. This is one way the invaders make themselves at home. 

Again in 2022, while our crew cleaned the beach at Laura Creek, we observed juvenile green crab numbering in the hundreds, scuttling about on the beach and in the tide pools. We reported the sighting to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) but being without a licence to trap them at the time, we did not take samples. 

This year, we determined to check to see how far up the Island the crabs had moved. We applied for a scientific licence from DFO. We mounted 3 crews: one back at Laura Creek, one at Shuttleworth Bight and another at Nahwitti River. All of these sites are on the North Coast Trail and highly exposed to the open Pacific, but all also have fish-bearing rivers. The crabs are known to travel upriver to feed on fish eggs and fry, so finding how far they have spread is important to protecting wild fish populations. 

Each crew was equipped with 2 crab traps and 2 minnow traps, plus gear to bait, anchor and retrieve their contents. At all locations, there were 2 rivers to monitor. We were time-limited, performing the work while encamped remotely and cleaning beaches at the same time. Each river was accordingly sampled with one 24-hour set. All of us found the sea conditions challenging for the setting of traps: the surf was high and active. The traps had to be weighed with rocks as well as anchored with rebar and/or rope. 

In the result, one lone male EGC was trapped at the Strandby River. Very few crabs of any description were found on any of the beaches, including Laura Creek. We found that odd, given what we’d seen in 2022, but perhaps conditions have been sufficiently rough that the crabs decided to move on. 

It would be worth another sampling event at the Strandby River. The habitat there is promising for crab, with extensive beds of eelgrass and other seaweeds. The adjacent beach (Shuttleworth) showed evidence of juvenile Dungeness with fractured shells, similar to what we’d seen at Sea Otter Cove (although in much smaller numbers). We will need to have a small vessel available to manage the sets in the best possible locations—something we couldn’t do this year for lack of funding. 

We will be reporting the results to Quatsino and Tlatlasikwala First Nations, to see if they are interested in working on a proposal to trap out the invaders. Other First Nations, working on Southwest Vancouver Island, have been running an eradication program for several years now. They have reported recovering multiple thousands of crabs per set in some locations, so getting on to the work while populations are still relatively small may be the key to preserving local biodiversity.

Photo caption: Volunteer Patrick Savage braved the surf to set the traps, but carrying everything to the lowest low tide line was a group effort.

Photo credit: Melanie Schuening 

The fact that the federal Cabinet decided against issuing an Emergency Order to protect the Southern Resident Killer Whales doesn’t mean there’s no emergency: that much is clear. If anyone doubted that the whales’ plight was manageable if managers were so inclined, a new report by our colleagues in SRKW work sets the record straight. If these whales become extinct, it will be because the government failed to take reasonable and available measures to protect them. 

Over 30 international experts were convened to review the efficacy and limitations of Canada’s existing threat reduction strategies and propose new or revised measures. Their expertise was broad, encompassing both killer whale and Chinook salmon health, behaviour and habitat as well as underwater noise, toxicology and conservation science. 

The primary concern is managing salmon fisheries to ensure enough of the large Chinook required by SRKW are available to them. In turn, under-sea noise can interfere with the ability of SRKW to find Chinook, so a second set of recommendations deal with setting biologically relevant noise reduction targets and implementing mandatory measures to achieve them. 

Exposure to extremely high levels of contaminants is a third threat faced by the whales. New regulations and source control strategies are required to eliminate toxic chemicals, including PCBs still used in some industries. Reducing pollution in both the fresh water habitat of Chinook and the Salish Sea is required in order to lower the toxic load carried by SRKW. 

Most of the measures required to address these threats could be implemented immediately, if the federal government were to concentrate on the cross-departmental co-operation that is needed. Sadly, that sort of co-operation is difficult to achieve within government and usually fails to attract budget priority. 

As the report makes clear, there is no excuse for failing to take the measures required by the Species at Risk Act to recover these amazing animals. The consequence of failure will be extinction that we could have prevented. We will continue to work with colleagues to shine a light on the path forward—and on any government that fails to follow it. 

Earlier this summer, SeaChoice released its most comprehensive Seafood Progress report to date on whether Canadian retailers are taking full responsibility for ensuring the seafood they sell is free from environmental harms and human rights abuses. 

The report, Conscious Avoidance, found that while retailers have made progress, even the most robust sustainable seafood policies remain limited in scope and under-imposed. Yet retailers market their policies in ways that suggest they apply to all suppliers, products and stores while minimizing what they do not take responsibility for and remaining quiet as investigations connecting unethical seafood back to their shelves continue to pile up. 

To spur action, SeaChoice scored retailers for the first time on indirect products that contain seafood — such as pet food, fish oil, and prepared meals — and what they are actually doing to keep human rights abuses out of their seafood supply chains.  

Reflecting a troubling trend, all retailers — except METRO, who earned a C — were given failing grades for not taking responsibility for nearly half their seafood products and not undertaking due diligence to keep unethical seafood off their shelves. 

The investigations on seafood supply chains are piling up. Retailers simply can’t afford to consciously avoid taking responsibility for seafood products tainted by human rights and environmental crimes anymore. 

Take a minute to use your voice and tell retailers to take responsibility and STOP selling unethical seafood! 

In June, the long-awaited greenwashing amendments to Canada’s Competition Act came into force with mixed fanfare. Unsurprisingly, big industry, such as oil and gas, quickly criticized the new rules. Most legal experts praised the new rules. Meanwhile environmental groups largely welcomed the new rules but remain concerned about the ambiguity built into the Competition Bureau’s accompanying greenwashing guidelines.  

So, what are the good attributes of the new rules? 

• The amendment has expanded private access to the Competition Tribunal. This means private parties can now apply directly to the Tribunal with cases that challenge deceptive marketing practices under the Competition Act.  

• Violations are considerable -- $10 million for first-time violations ($15 million for each subsequent violation) and three times the benefit value from the misconduct or 3% of the corporation’s annual gross revenue.  

The concern with the guidelines: 

• The Bureau’s guidelines for environmental claims give an extraordinary amount of leeway regarding what may qualify as “adequate and proper test” and “internationally recognized methodology”.   

Such leeway opens the door for questionable certifications to evade scrutiny by the Bureau and could result in greenwashing associated with certification claims to continue unmitigated in the Canadian marketplace – a problem that Living Oceans has long highlighted as problem in farmed salmon certifications. And it’s not just seafood certifications. The potential for misleading certifications is an issue systemic across commodities and certifications – including forestry, palm oil, cotton, soy, cocoa, coffee, and more.  

Living Oceans and fellow conservation groups are keenly watching whether the new greenwashing rules will have teeth – once put to the test. 

Read our full SeaChoice submission to the Competition Bureau.

Did you know your Canadian pension funds will be voting soon on whether to support the polluting open-net pen salmon farming industry or to save a 60-million-year-old Australian animal to extinction?  

Tell your Canadian pension fund to vote to save the ancient Maugean skate. 

Living Oceans has been working with our Save the Skate allies, investors and funds, to get some of the world’s largest supermarkets to switch out unsustainable farmed salmon.  

It was the biggest nature shareholder resolution in the world last year: 39% of Coles shareholders and 30% of Woolworths shareholders defied their Board’s recommendations and voted to save the Maugean skate from extinction. 

This stingray-like animal that’s been around since the dinosaurs is at risk because of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania, Australia. The supermarkets need to stop sourcing salmon from Macquarie Harbour, or they risk linking themselves with an extinction event. 

The supermarket Annual General Meetings are fast approaching again. And once again they’re facing resolutions asking them to save the skate. Now it's time to use your power as an investor. If you have retirement savings in a Canadian pension fund you likely have shares in Coles and Woolworths. Your pension fund will vote on these resolutions to save the skate. 

Use Eko’s easy tool to email your Canadian pension fund and tell them that you want your retirement money funding a positive future where animals thrive. Can you ask them to vote FOR the resolutions to save the skate, and if your fund did vote for the resolutions last year (amazing), ask them to do it again? 

Tell your PENSION fund to save the skate 

Photo credit: Ken Szeto and Neil Saxvik

Our annual ocean photo contest is now open—submit your best shots by September 30, 2025 for a chance to win amazing prizes. 

Hosted by Living Oceans Society for over 20 years, this contest celebrates ocean protection and helps raise awareness about why healthy oceans matter. 

Get outside, discover marine life, capture the beauty (and challenges) of the sea, and share your love for the environment. Together, we can inspire action and showcase the wonders of our oceans. Be sure to use wildlife photography ethics while you’re out there. 

• Submissions close September 30, 2025. 

• Get inspired by last year’s winners: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBKNA2 

• Learn more & enter here: https://livingoceans.org/action/ocean-exposures-photo-contest-2025 

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Photo credit: Sara Ellison and Ana Pozas

Momentum is building against deep-sea mining, as governments, campaigners, and ocean advocates increasingly warn of irreversible harm to ecosystems that remain largely unexplored. At the latest International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting, Croatia became the 38th nation to back a moratorium or precautionary pause. 

Pacific leaders were among the strongest voices. Palau’s President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. denounced seabed mining as “gambling with the future of Pacific Island children,” while a representative from the Solomon Islands described the lasting cultural, ecological, and spiritual trauma already inflicted by land-based extractive industries. They urged that this destructive cycle must not be repeated in the ocean that sustains their communities. 

France also reiterated its opposition, with envoy Olivier Poivre d’Arvor calling for a 10–15 year pause: “No deep-sea mining without science, without legitimacy, without equity.” 

Yet despite growing resistance, campaigners stressed that many governments are failing to match their ambitious promises at the recent U.N. Ocean Conference with action at the ISA. Sofia Tsenikli of DSCC warned that “governments must do what it takes to implement a moratorium before it’s too late.” 

Other advocates emphasized the wider stakes. Farah Obaidullah, founder of The Ocean and Us, argued that the ocean already faces multiple crises, from climate change to biodiversity loss, and cannot withstand the additional burden of deep-sea mining. Greenpeace and Seas at Risk echoed the need for governments to stand firm, warning that silence or delay would enable a desperate industry to force through weak regulations. 

The choice is becoming clearer: protect the deep sea as a vital part of our planet’s future—or allow short-term corporate profit to inflict irreversible damage on one of Earth’s last great wildernesses. Take the time to send a letter. Say No to Deep-Sea Mining. https://only.one/act/mining 

Get your tickets! The Ocean Film Festival World Tour returns in 2025 with an unforgettable lineup of films celebrating the wonders of the sea. 

This year’s collection will transport audiences through stunning cinematography and powerful storytelling, highlighting both the beauty and the challenges of our oceans. 

From ocean exploration and marine wildlife to extreme water sports, coastal cultures, and stories of ocean lovers, the festival brings together a diverse selection of films guaranteed to inspire and captivate. 

Join us (we’ll have a table at each of the following events) for an extraordinary evening of ocean-themed films and documentaries at Ocean Film Festival Canada in Victoria (October 9), Nanaimo (October 26) and North Vancouver (November 6).  

For the latest updates and ticket details, visit: oceanfilmfestivalcanada.ca. 

This September, people everywhere will come together to Draw the Line—a global week of action leading up to a powerful weekend of events, September 19–21, 2025. From city streets to remote villages, ordinary people will gather in strength, solidarity, and celebration to send a clear message: world leaders must act now on the climate crisis. 

Why now? 

September is a decisive moment. World leaders will meet at the UN General Assembly in New York, and just six weeks later in Brazil for the UN Climate Summit (COP30). These are not just routine meetings—they’re moments that will define whether governments rise to the challenge or allow climate breakdown to worsen. We cannot afford to delay. 

Why do we need to Draw the Line? 

The stakes could not be higher. Around the world, floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves are intensifying. Food and energy costs are climbing while fossil fuel giants and billionaires continue to profit at the expense of people and planet. 

Indigenous leaders from the Amazon to the Pacific are warning that our shared future is on the line. The science is clear: the next five to ten years will determine whether we keep global heating to safer levels—or cross irreversible tipping points. 

Yet instead of acting, too many governments are backtracking—rolling back rights, breaking climate promises, and letting fossil fuel companies keep polluting. 

Why us? 

Because people power works. We, the people, hold the solutions: renewable energy, climate justice, and community-led resilience. Together, we can demand the urgent, decisive action needed to secure a just and livable future for all. 

This September, let’s stand together. Go to an event near you or plan your own.   
Learn more and get involved: drawtheline.world 

• Ocean acidification reaches dangerous levels 

Dubbed the “evil twin” of climate change, ocean acidification is often overlooked but it’s “a ticking timebomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies.” Ocean and Coastal Futures  

• Welcome to the Great Bear Sea 

bioGraphic “After decades of discord, Canada and First Nations are working together to build a network of marine protected areas stretching from Vancouver Island to Alaska.”

• ROCK | PLASTIC | SALMON 

This film exposes an industry’s blatant disregard for the environment and the inspiring characters who are standing up for a cleaner future. 

• The Outlaw Ocean Podcast 

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Ian Urbina returns with a new season of his riveting podcast anthology, The Outlaw Ocean, which explores the most lawless place on earth. 

• The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson 

Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come.