By Canadian Press

23 projects funded to help restore British Columbia’s fragile salmon stocks

Jul 5, 2019 | 1:22 PM

VANCOUVER — A project to transform aging dikes in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland to make them more salmon-friendly is among 23 proposals selected by the federal and provincial governments to restore wild fish stocks.

Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham announced the recipients today of the first round of funding under the B.C. Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund.

The fund was launched in May and aims to restore the province’s imperiled wild salmon populations through innovation, infrastructure and science projects, and the recipients announced today will receive about $13 million in total.

One of the funded projects is called Connected Waters and led by Tides Canada and Watershed Watch Salmon Society, which will spend the next year identifying priority dikes across the Lower Fraser River that are blocking the passage of juvenile salmon.

Lina Azeez, a campaign manager with Watershed Watch, says the groups aim to come up with green-infrastructure solutions such as “living dikes” that are made of natural materials and are more welcoming to salmon than concrete walls.

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Other groups that received funding today include the University of British Columbia, which will conduct research on the sustainability of capture-and-release recreational fisheries, and the Sport Fishing Institute for a mobile app that helps monitor catches.

The Canadian Press