Feds Allocate Almost $30M to Assist Pacific Salmon at Risk Because of Global Heating

NOAA’s strategy outlines how investment in science enhances efforts in restoring and connecting Pacific salmon habitats, ensuring water quality and quantity, managing sustainable fisheries and continuing to improve fish hatcheries. 

This funding will help support the science component of the agency’s recovery strategy by expanding its expertise and improving access to resources necessary to advance its science capabilities.  

Robust science is critical to adaptively managing the diversity of Pacific salmon populations, addressing uncertainties in a changing climate and investing in the most effective solutions in watersheds along the West Coast.

 Supporting Pacific salmon recovery is particularly beneficial to cultural heritage and livelihoods of Pacific Northwest tribes. Indigenous Knowledge of Pacific salmon is vital to the conservation and restoration of the species.

The $27 million in funding will be distributed through 2026 to NOAA’s Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers to conduct science and research to advance salmon recovery. Specific activities include: 

• Integrated model development and application: Improving salmon life-cycle computer models and including ecosystem parameters to inform management strategies that rely on predictions of Pacific salmon abundance.
• Restoration, recovery and reintroduction techniques: Assessing habitat restoration effectiveness, improving methods to determine meaningful conservation and management decisions and measuring the ability of reintroduced salmon to adapt to future environmental conditions.
• Habitat stressors in freshwater and estuary environments: Investigating the impacts of stormwater pollutants on salmon to include using toxicity data in management decisions.
• Ocean and nearshore ecology: Measuring indicators of ocean productivity and predation rates to improve predictions of salmon survival and growth. 

This funding was first announced in June 2023 as part of the historic $3.3 billion in investments that NOAA is making through the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that America’s communities and economies are ready for and resilient to climate change. Of that funding, $42 million will directly support Pacific salmon recovery, including $15 million to support conservation efforts through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.