Skeena Salmon: Risking a $110 Million Dollar Industry

The Skeena watershed is Canada’s second largest salmon producing river.

Although the Skeena and Nass Rivers do not have salmon farms, there have been proposals to expand the fish farm industry into this region. These proposals have been met with staunch opposition from commercial and sport fishing businesses, lodge owners and the vast majority of First Nations and local residents.

The report, Valuation of the Wild Salmon Economy of the Skeena River Watershed commissioned by these concerned citizens from IBM Business Consulting in 2006 concluded the healthy wild salmon of the Skeena River watershed are worth $110 million annually. Wild salmon support recreational tourism, sport and commercial fishing, value-added processing and provide value to BC First Nations and Alaskan citizens.

All told, the value to BC’s coastal communities derived from wild salmon and healthy ecosystems far outweighs the minimal job benefits of the highly mechanized salmon farming industry that is putting wild salmon at risk.

By making the transition to closed, contained farm technology such as ocean-based floating tanks, BC could likely have it all. We could sustain jobs in the salmon farming industry and greatly reduce the threat to jobs dependent on healthy oceans and abundant wild salmon.

Learn More
Save Our Skeena River: www.saveourskeenasalmon.org

Valuation of the Wild Salmon Economy of the Skeena River Watershed a report commissioned by the Northwest Institute by IBM Business Consulting Services in March 2006. (pdf)

References
Economic Value of the Commercial Nature-Based Tourism Industry in British Columbia (“Economic Value” study).  This study was performed by Pacific Analytics and Tourism British Columbia, in cooperation with the Wilderness Tourism Association, in September 2004.