About the lab

The Salmon Watersheds Lab (SWL) at Simon Fraser University is a large, collaborative aquatic ecology research lab focused on salmon systems in western Canada. The SWL consists of between 12 and 25 staff and students at any given time, collaborating with more than 40 partner organizations and engaging in research across nine different projects, many of which include fieldwork across British Columbia.

Our Mission

To understand the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, from headwaters to estuaries, and inform their conservation and management, with a primary focus on salmon systems.

A Peek Into Our Work: Science News

Canada is losing track of its wild salmon — just when we need that knowledge most.

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A new article by Micheal Price and Jonathan Moore has just been published in The Conservation. They discuss how Canada is loosing track of its wild Pacific salmon at the worst possible time, just as climate change and industrial development put growing pressure on their survival.

Read the full article here.

Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)

Solving complex climate challenges means taking the time to contemplate, collaborate, and dream — but finding that time can be a challenge for even the most visionary thinkers. PICS’ Climate Foresight program hosted two dialogues this fall that allowed researchers and knowledge holders to come together to seed new thinking. Participants discussed the future of watersheds and collective ownership of climate infrastructure. Read more about it here.

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Photo Credit: Alex Harris

Women Making Waves

PhD Candidate

Marta Ulaski

Won the J. Frances Allen Award for the top female PhD student from the American Fisheries Society!

Master of Resource Management

Emma Griggs

Emma successfully defended her Master's thesis!

Doctoral Graduand

Julie Charbonneau

Julie has successfully defended her PhD thesis! Way to go, Dr. Charbonneau! We can't wait to see all the amazing things you do.

News and Updates

A new article by Micheal Price and Jonathan Moore has just been published in The Conservation. They discuss how Canada is loosing track of its wild Pacific salmon at the worst possible time, just as climate change and industrial development put growing pressure on their survival.

Link to the article in our bio!

SWLs favourite papers from 2025!
A couple weeks ago we all shared our favourite papers from 2025 and voted for our favourites. Unsurprisingly they were both important studies on species conservation in a changing climate. Here are our top two:

“Indigenous Knowledge as a sole data source in habitat selection functions” by Gryba et al. (2025) - Iñupiat hunters in Alaska are showing us how Indigenous Knowledge can be just as valuable as satellite data for understanding where ringed seals live and breed. By working with scientists, their generations of observations were used to create a statistical model that can inform conservation decisions. Knowledge coproduction at its best!

“Anatomy of range contraction: Flow-phenology mismatches threaten salmonid fishes near their trailing edge” by Carlson et al. (2025) - California’s 2012-2016 drought taught us a harsh lesson. When winter rains came too late, salmon couldn’t reach their spawning grounds. While some populations were able to shift downstream, others crashed entirely. The timing of just a few storms determined which fish could and couldn’t access their spawning grounds.

Find both of these papers in the link on our bio!

A new study by postdoc Spencer Dakin Kuiper explores how environmental pressures add up across the landscape and how different landscapes can be grouped by these pressures. The study examines what these patterns mean for salmon and their spawning habitats, and how this knowledge can support management.

Congratulations Spencer and team!!

Check it out now - link in bio

Meet the team!
We’re kicking off a new series where we introduce you to the brilliant minds of the Salmon Watersheds Lab, starting with our fearless leader, Jon! Stay tuned to learn more about what we are up to this year.

Note: No crabs were studied in the making of this post

Late post, sorry!!

A huge congratulations is in order for our queen of steelhead, Julie!

Julie successfully (dominated) defended her PhD on "Shifting life histories and recreational fishery dynamics in steelhead trout”.

The lab will be a sad, empty, void without her glowing presence, but we know she is on to do incredible things.

Well done, Dr. Charbonneau 🔥

Today is a bit of a tragic one for the salmon watersheds lab 🥲🥲 Our beloved fieldwork coordinator extraordinaire (and the true creative genius behind this account) Kei is moving on to her next big adventure (outmigrating into the big open ocean if you will…LOL)! 🐟😢

Kei has been an incredible part of our team these past two years, always bringing her dedication, curiosity, creativity, humor, and love of noodles to all our field work projects and prep 🫡

We will miss her SO much and are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside her!

A newly published (!!) collaborative study led by lab alumni Kirsten Bradford upholds Indigenous salmon stream caretaking knowledge and restoration, bringing together conversations with Indigenous experts as well as existing papers and reports.

Focusing on the relationships, rights, and responsibilities of Indigenous People with their salmon kin, the paper describes eight stream caretaking practices and three case studies of contemporary Indigenous restoration.

“This paper shares some of the ways that Indigenous Peoples take care of their salmon systems. These stream caretaking practices and protocols range from moving rocks and boulders for spawning habitats to returning salmon bones back to the river and moving fertilized eggs”, says Kirsten.

“These ideas and practices from our ancestors continue to be passed on today through many generations of learning and doing. My hope is that this paper will reawaken some of this ancestral knowledge”, says co-author Kii’iljuus Barbara Wilson, Haida elder and adjunct professor at the Centre of the Indigenous Fisheries at UBC.

This study was led by Kirsten during her MSc with the lab and the Aquatic Research Cooperative. The collaborative team included twelve Indigenous and non-indigenous scholars. The practices in the paper were thoughtfully shared and supported by artwork by Syilx artist, Lauren Marchand.

Link in bio for the whole thing! 🌱🐟

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#newpaper #restoration #indigenous #streams #caretaking #indigenousfisheries #fish #science

All done now 🥹🐟🥲

Our Nicola snorkelling crew finished up their fall round of snorkelling, bringing this year’s field season to a close (mostly….. lol) for our lab.

We’re feeling super, super grateful to get to do this work - it is a privilege and a joy to get to further understand these fish and the systems, people, and communities that they are deeply interconnected to. A big thank you to everyone who made this field season possible! 💌☺️

Here are a few highlights and snorkelling in-betweens, photo credit goes to Ben Zdasiuk, Kei Poon, and Brogan Neufeld.

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#merrittforever #merrittisawesome #fishinthedesert #fishareawesome #snorkelling #fish #research #fieldseason #is #over #sad

Happy Halloween from our lab to yours 🎃💖

This year, our spooktastic activity was doing our own watercolour renditions of zombie fish 😌🧟🐟

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

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#fishart #fish #art #science #lab #biologylab

What does it take to find a radio tag that’s fallen off of a Chinook? The answer involves a helicopter or two, antennaes, snorkellers, an ungodly amount of Mott’s Fruitsations, and a whole lotta walking throughout the watershed!

Feeling super grateful and excited to finish up the first year of our Chinook tagging program in the Nicola! Now onto analyzing the data 🤓🐟📈

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#fishscience #salmon #research #ecology #temperature #nicola

New research alert! 🚨🗣

A very (!!) recent study by Jon and co-authors shows that local management activities can either strengthen or weaken watershed resilience to climate change, affecting both salmon and people.

Linking the small-scale to the large-scale, this paper identifies four different syndromes of the combined impacts of local watershed pressures and climate change. These syndromes impair the ability of salmon and their ecosystem to cope with climate change, highlighting how cumulative harms from land use and climate change are pushing many salmon-bearing watersheds to impoverishment.

Using a downscaled application of the safe operating space concept, the study provides tangible options for local management to give salmon watersheds the time and space to cope with climate change.

“Managing for climate resilience will not be status quo but will entail strengthened environmental protections, hard decisions, and trade-offs. In some ways, the ideas are quite simple. The science is clear. There is now an urgent need and opportunity to translate this knowledge into on-the-ground action and policies for climate resilience that invest in the well-being of our futures,” says Jon.

This paper is associated with the Watershed Futures Initiative. Paper coauthors include collaborators from the University of British Columbia, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and other organizations.

Link in bio for the whole thing!

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#newpaper #newpublication #research #cumulativeeffects #salmon #policy #climatechange #climateresilience #localmanagement #environment

This year was a huge year for pink returns - folks from our lab have been encountering pinks left and right during fieldwork this fall 💅🐟

Bonus points if you can identify all of the species in the second video!

Photos/videos taken by Jon Moore and Ben Zdasiuk.

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#pinks #fisheries #salmon #pinksalmon #returns #research #biology

Inspiring landscapes, great people, and ... salmon!

Field posts as part of the Taku Salmon Resilience Initiative 🐟⛰️

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#salmon #research #fieldwork #taku #resilience #initiative #inspiring #fisheries

Looking for ET or looking for fish?

With all of our temperature tags now out in the wild, our Nicola field teams are busy trying to track and retrieve these tags. These tags have been put on adult Chinook in the watershed, and record the stream temperatures that these fish experience as they migrate to their spawning grounds.

Floating, walking, driving, and (very occasionally) helicoptering around the watershed, SWL lab members use the antennae pictured to pick up on the “pings” that these tags emit. After that, it’s up to the snorkeller to find exactly where the tag is. It’s like geocaching at level 1000!

If you happen to be in the Nicola watershed and stumble across a tag, please reach out to NicolaSalmonTag@gmail.com for a reward and our eternal gratitude 🧚🐟🫵🙏

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#antennae #fishtracking #nicola #pings #telemetry #radiotags #reward

Pacific salmon are facing unprecedented pressures from a multitude of stressors - industrial forestry, mining, urban development, aquaculture, and climate change - all regulated under separate laws that rarely account for their combined impacts.

A new study published in FACETS by SWL PhD student Marta Ulaski and coauthors delves deeper into this issue, revealing how existing regulations are enabling incremental harm to salmon ecosystems without enforceable limits or coordinated oversight.

Synthesizing ecological science and policy analysis, the authors propose a cumulative effects management cycle that links monitoring, assessment, and governance, and identify five key opportunities for reform.

Amidst growing concern over legislation like federal Bill C-5 and provincial Bills 14 and 15 that fast track projects, this study highlights an urgent need for systemic reform in our policies to ensure sustainable and equitable stewardship of salmon-bearing watersheds.   This study was the result of a collaborative project involving 14 experts in science and policy from institutions that included Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, West Environmental Law, Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance and Polis Project of Ecological Governance of the University of Victoria as part of the Watershed Futures Initiative.

Head over to the link in our bio to read the whole thing!

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#fisheries #newpaper #fishscience #cumulativeeffects #watersheds #policy #waterpolicy #britishcolumbia #canada #salmon #fisheriespolicy #environmentalpolicy #management

Big news! Marta Ulaski, SWL PhD student and power stance extraordinaire, just won the J Frances Allen Scholarship Award from @americanfisheries 🥳🥹

The J Frances Allen Scholarship was established in 1986 to honour pioneering women in fisheries. We are super proud of her, and are feeling extra lucky to get to work with such incredible folks in the lab 🥰🐟

Marta’s current work focuses on cumulative effects in salmon watersheds to inform place-based management strategies. Read more about her work on her website at martaulaski.com

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#fisheriesscience #womeninstem #scholarship #award #americanfisheriessociety #afs

Some recent photos from fieldwork in and around the Taku watershed 🐻🐺🐟

During this trip, Britt and Jon deployed camera traps on three watersheds experiencing recent glacier retreat.

This was done to better understand how wildlife use recently deglaciated floodplains - especially in response to salmon that are starting to use these areas as well (glacier retreat = new potential habitat for salmon). Examples of wildlife that they are expecting to find are wolves, grizzly bears, and moose!

This work is part of Britt’s PhD investigating emerging habitat due to glacier retreat, and how this will impact the development of and interactions between salmonids and floodplain wildlife communities.

Her work is a part of the Salmon Resilience Initiative, a larger project looking to inform land use planning and policy in a way that furthers climate change resiliency within the Taku River watershed and its salmon.

This initiative is led by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in collaboration with SFU, University of Montana, and the University of Washington.

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#glaciers #melt #newhabitat #salmon #wildlife #bears #moose #wolves #grizzlies

Our field crew is back out in Merritt this year for another round of snorkel surveys in the Nicola watershed! With water temperatures in the last few weeks ranging between 14 and 27 degrees celsius, it’s been eye-opening to see how fish are using different parts of the watershed to manage the heat.

1.+ 2. A small coldwater inflow creates a temperature refuge available to juvenile salmon on the Coldwater, a tributary of the Nicola (aptly named…). Here, hundreds of juvenile salmon, trout and whitefish are crowded in an area that is 6 degrees colder than the surrounding river.

3. If you look closely, you can see a pod of Chinook holding in a temperature refuge on the mainstem of the Nicola River. There is a small spring-fed creek above this area that pulses cold water into where the fish are - an important place where salmon can rest before they continue upriver to spawn.

4. A few Chinook pretending to be trout on the Spius River, which flows into the Nicola.

5. A young research assistant/soon to be Masters student (👀) covers his face to escape the heat of the interior sun… but there is no refuge for him on the river. Yet, he perseveres on with the possibility of respite in the form of a cold beverage post fieldwork…

*No staff harmed in the taking of these photos or during fieldwork 🤠😇

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#salmon #temperature #refugia #climatechange #research #nicolavalley #nicolariver #nicola #spius #coldwater

The salmon are coming! It is an exciting time of year as salmon start to show up in streams and fisheries across BC. But how does one keep up with what’s happening?!

One source of information for Fraser River sockeye and pink salmon is the @pacificsalmoncommission, which issues weekly reports during the Fraser River commercial salmon fishing season.

This year, they are forecasting 17-39 million (best estimate = 27 million) pink salmon for the Fraser - some of the highest on record! The forecasted return of sockeye is a more modest 1.4-6.4 million (best estimate = 3 million). It can be noted that these forecasts have a lot of uncertainty due to the unpredictable ups and downs of marine survival. The PSC updates these numbers as salmon are counted and caught throughout the season 🐟📊

Head over to the link in our bio to take a look!

Photos taken by @davidherasimtschuk and @freshwatersillustrated.

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#fisheries #data #pacificsalmoncommission #fraserriver #sockeye #pink #resource

Last week, SWL lab members were out in the field setting up antenna stations and tagging Chinook for a research project investigating the thermal experience of adult Chinook salmon in the Nicola watershed. This project is in collaboration with DFO, and will be focusing in particular on thermal refugia use 🌡️🐟

The tags shown in these images allow us to see where these fish travel within the watershed, and what stream temperatures they have been experiencing. The tags will emit “pings” as fish travel past antenna stations, and record temperature data in intervals.

Throughout the next few months, SWL folks will be out in the Nicola watershed tagging more Chinook and tracking them throughout the watershed - we’re excited to see what we find!

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#nicola #thermal #temperature #refugia #salmon #chinook #fishresearch

In her recently published paper, SWL PhD student Julie Charbonneau has uncovered evidence that angler catch rates may stay high even as steelhead populations decline in British Columbia, a phenomenon know as hyperstability.

In recreational fisheries, angler catch data serve as an important indicator of fish stock health and status, especially in areas where systematic monitoring programs are lacking.

The study analyzed data from steelhead anglers in 14 streams across the Province, revealing that catch-per-unit-effort data may significantly overestimate steelhead abundance, creating a dangerous “illusion of plenty”.

Head over to the link in our bio to read the paper! 🎣🤓

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#steelhead #angler #fisheriesmanagement #science #research #conservation #freshwater #salmon #hyperstability

A little compilation of some of the sights during and in between fieldwork ✨🐟

We are feeling extremely grateful for all of the places and people that we are able to visit and work with. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Looking forward to the rest of the field season 🌱🫶

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#fishyfriends #fieldwork #salmon #fisheries

The evolution of a net carrying method… and a field team.

Our lab’s estuary fieldwork team is now back in Vancouver, and would like to share some photos as a final goodbye to their field season. One of these photos is the latest estuary album cover 😱🤯

Some context - for the past 4 field seasons, our estuary field team has created an album cover to commemorate the field season, often executing an incredible artistic vision. This year, we thought to create an ode to the bane(s) of our existence - the pole seine net, and the field team’s fearless (feudal) leader, PhD student Phoebe.

Throughout the years of the estuary fieldwork program, we’ve gone through several iterations of carrying our pole seine net through rugged estuary terrain (as seen in the slides). We have also had an ongoing joke where Phoebe rules with an iron fist (she doesn’t, but we just like to make fun of her) - and hence, the final form for the seine net and the estuary album cover has been manifested 🙏😎

Please take your time and enjoy these photos - patent incoming for the seine net rig.

*No PhD students were harmed in these images.

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#fieldwork #funny #meme #scienceisfun #salmon #estuaries #inseinity #spawningdead

As Canada and BC push to fast track the development of natural resources in the name of national security, a recent op-ed by Jon in @thevancouversun outlines opportunities to also fast-track protections of lands and waters for wildlife, fish, and people.

Recently the BC government narrowly passed Bills 14 and 15. These bills have been controversial and could be used to expedite resource projects with limited consultation and environmental oversight. Given this push and existing policies for natural resource development, there are also concrete actions that the Province could take to fast-track environmental safeguards.

Head over to the link in our bio to see his Op-Ed 🌱🔍

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#environment #policy #opinion #vancouversun #news #province #government

Meet our estuary field team!

Phoebe, Carter, Lili, and Kei are currently out in the field looking juvenile salmon in estuaries across Vancouver Island and Bella Coola area. While this fieldwork has been for Phoebe’s PhD research for the past few years, we are excited to share that Lili, an incoming PhD student, will be taking this project on next year as Phoebe focuses on analysis.

In their free time between seines, this field team enjoys cooking meals together (as in Carter and Kei cook, Lili and Phoebe judge, enjoy, and do dishes), running (but only under 2km unless it is Lili who enjoys longer distances), and suffering through Carter’s country playlists 🥰😂😇

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#fieldteam #salmonresearch #fisheries #fieldwork

Happy (belated) Wild Salmon Day! 😅❣️🐟 Salmon are so incredibly important - healthy salmon mean healthy ecosystems and communities.

We’re super grateful to be able to study salmon and their watersheds here at our lab, and be apart of the collaborative efforts working towards salmon for all.

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#wildsalmonday #research #fisheries

🚨🗣️ This week, we are spotlighting two new papers from lab alumni!

A big congrats is in order for Dan Scurfield and Will Atlas who recently had their papers published. Danny is our lab’s former Fieldwork Coordinator - his paper focuses on work that he did with our Estuary Resilience team in the Salmon River estuary. His work illustrated how estuarine fishes “surf” the tide, making use of transiently aquatic habitats throughout the estuary.

Will is a former PhD student with the lab, and current research scientist at the @wildsalmoncenter. His recent paper integrates habitat metrics into a traditional spawner-recruit model to estimate stock status and benchmarks for data-limited Sockeye populations across the North and Central Coasts of BC.

🌱🤓 Find the links to these papers in our bio - take a read through!

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#newpaper #researchpaper #research #salmon #bc #estuaries

Us trying to convince the fish to be our friends… 🫠🤓

Get a look at what seining could look like from a fish’s POV! Some clips taken by our estuary field team in the last few weeks - there’s been a lot of coho (and chum!) in the estuaries lately 🐣🐟

Coho juveniles have complex life history patterns, and often migrate between rivers and estuaries before eventually entering the ocean - they usually spend 1-2 years in the estuary/river before finally taking the leap!

Can you guess which videos are of the coho, and which are of the chum? 🕵️

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#coho #chum #fry #estuary #deeznets #fishresearch #seine #inseine #seinesallday #fisheries #research #bc

Last week, our lab had our annual lab retreat (emphasis on the treat in reTREAT - because it’s such a treat to get to hang out with these folks) 🥹✨

This time together allowed us to form connections with one another, work on collaborative science, and brainstorm ways that we can translate our science into impactful and tangible changes. Like everything else, our projects are all connected in many ways, and our science is better together!

We also got to work on some soccer skills (a work in progress), and charade skills (impeccable) around the campfire. We are probably a little biased, but we are super grateful for our lil lab community 💕🐟

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#labretreat #salmon #science #collaboration #brainstorming

Different day, seine sh*t 🫠😂

A timelapse showing a pole seine set by one of our field teams led by SWL PhD student Phoebe! Phoebe’s research focuses on juvenile salmonid use of estuaries, and so the fieldwork for her research involves seine after seine looking for juvenile salmon in estuaries across Vancouver Island and Bella Coola. We call it inseinity!

Once the seine is pulled up, fish are put into buckets with aerators, where they are measured and identified.

This year, having started in early April, they have been seeing a lot of chum and are now seeing more coho!

Footage taken by Erica Lee 📸❣️

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#seine #seineeveryday #seinetilyoudrop #goinginseine #justkidding

Recently, a few of our co-advised MSc students, Jamie and Katrina, headed to the North Thompson to do some sampling in wetlands! Jamie’s research focuses on off-channel habitat and restoration potential in the Deadman, and Katrina’s will be focusing on juvenile use of wetland habitat.

*No nets used or froggies harmed in the first pic 😘🐸

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#wetland #norththompson #fieldwork #salmon #juvenile

Earlier this month, folks from our lab got to participate in a 4WD operations course with @arc_offroad_training 🚘🏔️

The course was fun and informative, and gave students and staff more confidence in driving our beloved lab truck heading into a busy field season.

We’re feeling super grateful to @arc_offroad_training and our lovely instructors, Kim and Mike 🫶😄

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#hotwheels #truck #vroom #driving

How does the saying go? Is it science imitates art? 🤭🖼️

A little while ago, we were lucky enough to able to commission the talented @monikaloevenmark_art to create a design for us based on some of the work that our lab does.

Using watercolour paints, she’s done an incredible job of encapsulating the dynamic and multidimensional salmon systems that we work with. It is so exciting and cool to see science and art in action together!

We are simply so excited about the final product, and look forward to sharing this new design with folks moving forward☺️🐟

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#art #science #salmon #lab #fish #sciencecommunication #scienceart

It’s been a busy few weeks for the lab! Last week, a handful of SWL lab folks attended the American Fisheries Society Washington-British Columbia Chapter conference. This conference was a wonderful opportunity for lab members to share their work, as well connect with and be inspired by the work of many others in our field.

Thank you @americanfisheries and @afs.wabc for putting on an excellent event 🐟🤓🌱

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#conference #fish #afs #washington #britishcolumbia

Yesterday, a few of our lab mates presented at IDEAS - the Inter-Departmental Ecology of Aquatic Species Symposium (it’s a mouthful!) at SFU. This annual symposium is an amazing way for folks in the Biology and Resource and Environmental Management (REM) departments to share their work with their colleagues, mentors, and peers.

A big shoutout to the IDEAS organizing committee (including our very own Emma Griggs and Hutton Noth) for putting on yet another fantastic event! As well, we’d like to congratulate our undergraduate research assistant Carter Tsui for winning People’s Choice with his talk about his honours thesis.

Last but not least, a shameless plug - Carter did part of his work on the Xwésam (Salmon) River on the island. Right now, @naturetrustbc must raise $294,000 by April 9th to conserve more than 100 acres of floodplain forest along this river - and they are looking for folks to donate! On behalf of Carter and our lab, please consider heading over to the link in our bio to find out more and donate 🏞️❣️🗣️

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#salmon #presentation #symposium #simonfraseruniversity #talk #estuary #seastars #temperature #policy

NEW PAPER ALERT! 🤩🗣️

Before her PhD research brought her to study glacier retreat in northern watersheds, Britt spent another life (read: Masters) focusing on juvenile coho use of wetlands in the North Thompson. Whether she encountered more bugs or fish in her Masters we’ll never know (note the Buff and hat as PPE), but what we do know is that we are super proud of her paper being published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences!

Click on the link on our bio to read the full thing 🫶🌱

#salmonresearch #paper #published #newpaper #environment #wetlands #norththompson

✨ Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! ✨ We may be a little biased, but we’re lucky to have some of the most brilliant and inspiring women in our lab! Here’s to breaking barriers, pushing boundaries, and shaping the future of science. Keep shining! 💫

#WomenInScience #GirlsInScience #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience #STEM #EmpowerWomen

New Paper Alert! 👀

A study published by Salmon Watersheds Lab members in collaboration with, @umontana Flathead Lake Biological Station and Taku River Tlingit First Nation examines the rapid transformation of floodplain ecosystems driven by glacier retreat.

Check out the link in our bio to read the full paper!

#glacier #taku #salmon #transformation #floodsplain #ecosystems

✨Lab work highlight ✨

Cumulative effects are the combined impacts of many different human activities on the lands and waters that salmon call home. Also known as “death by a thousand cuts,” there is an urgent need to improve the science and governance of cumulative effects in BC.

The Watershed Futures Initiative (WFI) is a collaborative initiative that undertakes and coordinates research on cumulative effects in British Columbia’s salmon-bearing watersheds, and initiates dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers.

The WFI team includes our fearless fish leader Dr. Jonathan Moore (project lead), Dr. Tara Martin (project co-lead, UBC), Dr. Nigel Sainsbury (project director), Trish Hall (project coordinator, SFU), a diverse expert advisory team, and other personnel. Several graduate students (including a few from our lab!) are also doing some great work within WFI as well 🥰🐟

The goals of WFI are community connection, science & understanding, and informing management.

If you want to follow the work of WFI, check out their Instagram channel @watershedfuturesinitiative!

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#cumulativeeffects #fisheries #research #sciencecommunication #collaborative #salmon #watersheds

Dr. Moore and Master's student Christian Carson recently joined the Your Forest podcast to explore how forestry practices impact salmon habitats, the crucial role of riparian zones, and strategies for balancing economic growth with ecological sustainability. 🎧 Tune in now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher! Thank you, @yourforestpodcast, for having us!

#Forestry #SalmonConservation #SustainableDevelopment #Ecology #Riparianzones

In early December, our lab had the honour of hosting a 2 day workshop focused on the Taku Salmon Resilience Initiative which aims to advance the ecological and cultural resilience of the watershed, particularly in light of climate change and other pressures. There were over 20 participants, including collaborators and representatives from Taku River Tlingit (TRT), University of Washington (@uofwa), SFU (@simonfraseru), and Round River (@round.river). This year was our third year of coming together for this workshop, and it has been exciting and meaningful to continue to strengthen connections and collaborations in this transboundary watershed.

These are some photos taken from the workshop, which included a game of stick gambling!

Looking forward to more things like this in the new year! ☺️🎊🐟🏔️

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#workshop #taku #salmon #resilience #salmonconservation

Happy holidays from our lab to you! Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and joyous fishy year ahead 🎊🫶

Photo taken from a recent excursion some of our lab folks went on to view some spawning fish!

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#fishmas #fisholidays

The SWL team was honoured to get a chance to participate in the Salmon Recovery and Resilience meeting last week. Jon got a chance to share some of our research and their implications in an opening keynote. As a part of @watershedfuturesinitiative, we also organized a break out session to discuss the challenging issue of cumulative effects. While cumulative harms come from a variety of activities occurring over time and space, this conversation helped illuminate some promising paths forward 💫🐟

Huge thanks to #PSF and #FNFC for organizing this amazing gathering of practitioners, experts, and leaders!

Looking for a post-doc!

SWL is seeking to hire a post-doc for a project identifying genomic markers for ecotype and run-timing of sockeye salmon in the North and Central Coast of BC.

Applicants will be reviewed starting December 20 2024, but we will consider applicants on a rolling basis. Head over to our website or the link in our bio to learn more 💫🐟

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#salmonwatershedsscience #environmentaljobs #researchjobs #salmon #jobposting

Good news alert!🚨🗣️

“Salmon are on the frontlines of climate change”

Located in the upper Pitt River, the Red Slough recently became the site of one of the largest ✨completed✨ salmon restoration projects in Western Canada. Led by Katzie First Nation and BC Parks, Global News recently ran a segment about this, with Jon sharing a few words about the significance of this project.

Check out the link in our bio to see the full story!

A big thank you to Neetu Garcha and the Global News team for having us.
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#resilientsalmon #goodnews #climatechange #restoration #salmon

A big big congratulations to Wendy Fleming, who successfully defended her Masters thesis: Linking habitat to spatial and temporal variability in individual energetic condition: towards assessing freshwater habitat quality for Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)🧬🐟

Co-advised by both Jon and Dr. Doug Braun with DFO, Wendy’s research explores important links between juvenile coho physiology and habitat, particularly around the Thompson watershed.

Whooooo go Wendy! 🎉🥰

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#coho #research #physiology #juvenile #salmon #salmonwatershedsscience

Come on out! On Dec. 3-4, a few folks from our lab will be taking part in the BC Salmon Recovery and Resilience Conference hosted by the Pacific Salmon Foundation. In particular, Jon will be delivering a talk as one of the keynote speakers, and will be joined by Emma Griggs and Marta Ulaski from our lab to organize a session - “Paths Out of a World of Cumulative Effects.”

This event will be bringing together folks in the salmon community to share knowledge, build connections, and collaborate on key salmon recovery issues. Please feel free join us if you are able to - registrations close in a week! ✨🐟

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#salmonrecovery #BCsalmonconference

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@salmonwatershedsscience

February 5, 2026- Postdoc Spencer Dakin Kuiper recently published his paper on how environmental pressures add up across the landscape and how different landscapes can be grouped by these pressures. Check it out here!

January 14, 2026 -We are recruiting a field assistant (NSERC or VPRI) USRA for summer 2026. Click here for more info!

December 10, 2025 -Lab member, Julie Charbonneau, successfully defended her PhD thesis! We are so proud of you, Dr. Charbonneau!

November 7, 2025 -New Paper Alert! Previous lab members, Kirsten Bradford, and co-authors have just published a new paper in FACETS. Read it here!

October 7, 2025 -Check out our Julie Charbonneau on the Doc Talks Fishing podcast, episode #44. Julie explains how high angler catch rates can hide serious population declines.

October 1, 2025 - New Paper Alert! Dr. Moore and co-authors (four from our lab!) have published a new paper in Fish and Fisheries. Read it here!

September 2, 2025 - New Paper Alert! PhD candidate, Marta Ulaski and coauthors have published a new paper in FACETS. Read it here!

August 25, 2025 - PhD candidate, Marta Ulaski, has won the J. Frances Allen Award for the top female PhD student from the American Fisheries Society! Go Marta!!

August 19, 2025 - Emma Griggs successfully defended her Master's thesis. Amazing work, Emma!!

June 17, 2025- New Paper Alert! Congratulations to Julie Charbonneau for her new paper in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society! Read it here.

June 10, 2025- Check out Dr. Moore's new article in the Vancouver Sun: "Opinion: It's time to fast-track actions to defend B.C.'s lands, waters, fish and wildlife." Read it here!

May 21, 2025 - Grist has published a new article highlighting the work of Dr. Moore, Dr. Pitman, and PhD candidate Britt Milner in the Taku region. Read it here!

May 8, 2025 - New Papers Alert! Our team has recently published papers in Ecology and Marine and Coastal Fisheries. Click the journal titles to check them out or find them under our "Publications" page!

March 7, 2025 - Scroll up and check out Dr. Moore on the Mountain Futures YouTube channel. Dr. Scott Hotaling and Dr. Moore chat about glacier recession and how this may impact salmon in the future.

March 4, 2025 - New paper alert! PhD Candidate Britt Milner has been published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences! Read the paper here!

Jan 31, 2025 - We now have a Bluesky account! Follow us @salmonscience.bsky.social!

Jan 24, 2025 - New Paper Alert! Our latest research has been published in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms! Read the paper here.

Dec 18, 2024 - Dr. Jonathan Moore and Master's student Christian Carson were featured on the podcast Your Forest discussing how salmon shape ecosystems and how forestry impacts salmon. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Nov 26, 2024 - We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow or equivalent in applied genomics to join our lab in 2025. Click here for more information!

Nov 6, 2024 - Wendy Fleming successfully defended her Master's thesis. Amazing work, Wendy!

Oct 8, 2024 - We are recruiting up to two new graduate students to join our lab in 2025! Click here for more information.

Oct 7, 2024 - Welcome to our new Lab Manager, Amaris Hackney!

Sept 14, 2024 - Check out our latest video on YouTube about Jon’s recent trip to the Arctic with scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks who are studying beaver expansion into the Arctic region. Watch it here.

August 2nd, 2024 - Curious about how salmon navigate the changing world? Recently, Dr. Jonathan Moore spoke with the Wild Salmon Center to discuss the adaptations and challenges salmon face today. Click here to read what he had to say: https://wildsalmoncenter.org/2024/07/16/salmon-futures-a-conversation-with-dr-jonathan-moore/

July 9, 2024 - We are seeking our next Lab Manager! Do you or someone you know have great organizational skills, an interest in project management, and want to be part of an awesome team? Check out the posting here.

June 14, 2024 - Congratulations to Jonathan Moore and Kara Pitman for their contribution to the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of The Osprey: The International Journal of Salmon and Steelhead Conservation. Their article on page 10 discusses the intricate relationship between gold mining, glacial changes, and the future of salmon populations. Interested in reading the issue? Read or download the PDF here.

May 15, 2024 - New Paper Alert! Our latest research has been published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Read the paper here.

May 2, 2024 - New paper alert! Congrats to lab members Sara Cannon, Jonathan Moore, Emma Griggs and Nigel Sainsbury for their new paper Taking care of knowledge, taking care of salmon: towards Indigenous data sovereignty in an era of climate change and cumulative effects. Read the paper here.

March 7, 2024 - Jonathan Moore and Marta Ulaski gave talks at the 9th World Fisheries Congress!

Feb 14, 2024 - Kate McGivney successfully defended her Master's thesis. Congratulations Kate!

Feb 12, 2024 - Kirsten Bradford successfully defended her Master's thesis. Amazing work, Kirsten!

Feb 8, 2024 - Jonathan Moore and Phoebe Gross gave talks at the Estuary Resilience Celebration Symposium hosted by the Nature Trust of BC and Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Feb 3, 2024 - Lab members Phoebe Gross and Wendy Fleming both did an awesome job delivering short talks at the IDEAS 2024 symposium.

Jan 26, 2024 - We're on Instagram! Follow @SalmonWatershedsScience for awesome updates and stunning photos! 📸🐟

Jan 11, 2024 - Congratulations to Postdoc Mike Price for his new paper published in Global Change Biology! Read the paper here.

Ecology & Conservation of Aquatic Systems

Jonathan Moore and Team

About the lab

Our Mission

To understand the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, from headwaters to estuaries, and inform their conservation and management, with a primary focus on salmon systems.

Canada is losing track of its wild salmon — just when we need that knowledge most.

Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)

Follow us on Instagram

Ecology & Conservation of Aquatic Systems

Jonathan Moore and Team

About the lab

Our Mission

To understand the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, from headwaters to estuaries, and inform their conservation and management, with a primary focus on salmon systems.

Canada is losing track of its wild salmon — just when we need that knowledge most.

Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)

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Follow us on Instagram