Hill says there’s a pattern of drought and floods that the province has been going through that is leading to major stress on salmon populations.
Tom Balfour, a habitat biologist with the Redd Fish Restoration Society on the west coast of Vancouver Island, says that some pools where juvenile salmon gather in the summer could see die-offs on a scale large enough to impact larger salmon populations.
Coho salmon are seen in Port Moody, B.C., in October 2023. In addition to the possibility of fish die-offs due to low water levels, researchers say a lower snowpack will mean faster snowmelt and disruption to salmon life cycles. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
He added that faster snowmelt due to low snowpack levels means that the life cycle of salmon can be affected dramatically as they adjust to more water in the spring.
The biologist says the public should push for governments to implement longer-term conservation and restoration measures for watersheds, but also keep an eye out for trapped fish and drying pools this spring and summer.
“One thing we definitely don’t have enough of in this province, is that kind of monitoring,” he said.