Running the Gauntlet: BC Salmon’s Journey to the High Seas
Young salmon exiting the Fraser River are only at the start of a long ocean journey to their maturing grounds in the far north Pacific. But what challenges must they overcome to survive their first weeks at sea, when they are at their most vulnerable? How does their environment – from physical ocean conditions, to the plankton productivity that provides the food they need to grow, to human influences – affect how many of them will ultimately make it back to the stream of their birth to spawn?
Hakai Institute researchers Brian Hunt and Martin Krkosek are deploying their field teams to find out. Teams are working from two nodes, in the Discovery Islands and north in the Johnstone Strait, to monitor the juvenile salmon as they begin their oceangoing lives.
Principal Investigators
Dr Brian Hunt, Hakai Research Associate, University of British Columbia
Dr Martin Krkosek, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr Evgeny Pakhomov, Professor, University of British Columbia
Dr Brendan Connors, Senior Systems Ecologist, ESSA Technologies Ltd.
Juvenile Salmon Field Teams
Luke Rogers (PhD candidate); Discovery Islands Field Lead
Kristi Inman (DIP), Brett Johnson (BSc candidate), Carolyn Knapper (BSc)
Sean Godwin (PhD candidate); Johnstone Strait Field Lead
Lauren Portner (BSc), Mack Bartlett (BSc), Katie Chan, Samantha Crowley (BSc), Chris Guinchard (BA), Donnah MacKinnon (BSc), Dylan Smith (BSc), Carson White (BSc)
Oceanography Team
Megan Foss (BSc), Kate Holmes, Kate Lansley (AScT, Biological Sciences), Natalie Malhara (BSc), Rebecca Piercey (BSc), Katie Pocock (BSc)
Hakai Institute Quadra Science Co-ordinator
Dr Alexander Hare
Salmon Coast Field Station Co-ordinators
Zephyr Polk (BSc)
Coady Web (BSc)
Data management
Matthew Foster (BSc; ADGIS – Adv. DIP GIS) & Shawn Hateley (Dip.Theatre Tech.)
Spatial Analyst
Keith Holmes (MSc) & Luba Reshitnyk (MSc)
Video Production
Camera – Grant Callegari
Editing – Grant Callegari & Jimmy Thomson
Producer – Jimmy Thompson