Data from: Reviewing 20 years of progress towards sustainable fisheries under Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy
Data files
Dec 18, 2025 version files 41.79 KB
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CH2Review_Ind_Pops_data.txt
16.58 KB
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CM_pfma_1960-2024.txt
5.09 KB
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CU_status_proportions.txt
374 B
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CU_status.txt
210 B
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IFRC_timeseries.txt
1.33 KB
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NCC_coho_harvest.txt
1.60 KB
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README.md
6.49 KB
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WSP_review_graphs.R
10.12 KB
Abstract
The Wild Salmon Policy was adopted in 2005, to safeguard salmon biodiversity and provide sustainable benefits to Canadians. Over the last 20 years the WSP has made important contributions to conservation, but many gaps remain. We find that many Conservation Units (83%; 324/390) have not had status assessments, a key element of the WSP. Changes in fisheries targeting Skeena and Nass sockeye, and Interior Fraser River coho salmon have promoted recovery of some CUs, but failure to robustly implement WSP strategies for north and central coast chum and coho salmon populations creates conservation risks with potentially devastating consequences for fisheries and ecosystems. Most Chinook salmon CUs in British Columbia are unassessed (81%; 65/80), and two out of the 15 assessed CUs are considered healthy (green status zone). Despite these risks, changes in the management of mixed-stock Chinook fisheries have been inadequate for reversing declines. A renewed commitment to WSP implementation, and an increased focus on transitioning harvest out of high-risk mixed-stock fisheries can support improved outcomes for Pacific salmon in Canada.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.98sf7m0xm
Description of the data and file structure
This data was drawn from publicly available sources, and reflects efforts by government, First Nations and other stock assessment programs undertaken annually in British Columbia. Code generates graphs published in Atlas et al. 2025 - Reviewing 20 years of progress towards sustainable fisheries under Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy. Data can be called into the R environment as is once the working directory has been set to match the user's local environment.
Files and variables
File: WSP_review_graphs.R
Description: This is an R-script that generates the figures presented in the manuscript. Each of the data files listed below is called into the R-environment, sequentially, to generate the figures.
File: CM_pfma_1960-2024.txt
Description: This data set is a timeseries of chum spawner escapement and harvest for Pacific Fishery Management Areas 7 & 8, between 1960 and 2024. Data are drawn from the DFO Post-Season Review booklet.
Variables
- year: the year of the observation (e.g. harvest, spawner abundance, total run size)
- pfma: Pacific Fishery Management Area
- catch: total fishery landings, typically for an individual population (PFMA scale aggregate)
- esc: spawner escapement, the number of fish that survived to spawn.
- total_run: total run size = escapement + catch
- ER: exploitation rate
File: IFRC_timeseries.txt
Description: Timeseries of interior Fraser coho salmon escapement and harvest from 1984 to 2022. Data were extracted from a figure in a status update for IFCS using XY extract online tools.
Variables
- Year: Year of the observation (spawner escapement, total run, exploitation rate)
- Escapement: Spawner escapement for a given year, aggregated for the entire IFCS management unit.
- Total_run: Total pre-fishery abundance for a given year, aggregated for the entire IFCS management unit.
- ER_inferred: Inferred exploitation rate for a year based on the formula: catch/(escapement + catch)
- ER_XY: Exploitation rate estimated from XY extract producing ER information from the Fraser Salmon Management Board presentation cited in the manuscript.
- avg_ER: the average of the two exploitation rate time series(ER_inferred and ER_XY) for each annual timestep.
File: NCC_coho_harvest.txt
Description: Timeseries of coho harvest in fisheries across the North and Central Coast
Variables
- year: year
- HG_troll_harv: Coho salmon harvest for a given year in the Haida Gwaii commercial troll fishery
- HG_troll_rel: Coho salmon releases for a given year in the Haida Gwaii commercial troll fishery
- HG_rec_harv: Coho salmon harvest for a given year in the Haida Gwaii recreational fishery
- HG_rec_rel: Coho salmon releases for a given year in the Haida Gwaii recreational fishery
- PR_rec_harv: Coho salmon harvest for a given year in the Prince Rupert area recreational fishery
- PR_rec_rel: Coho salmon releases for a given year in the Prince Rupert area recreational fishery
- A6_rec_harv: Coho salmon harvest for a given year in the PFMA6 recreational fishery
- A6_rec_rel: Coho salmon releases for a given year in the PFMA6 recreational fishery
- CC_rec_harv: Coho salmon harvest in the Central Coast recreational fishery, these numbers are known to be biased low.
- NC_comm_total: Total commercial harvest of coho salmon in a given year.
- NC_rec_total: Total estimated (biased low) harvest of coho salmon in recreational fisheries in a given year.
- NC_FN_total: Total reported First Nations FSC harvest of coho in a given year, these numbers represent incomplete reporting, and are generated using a range of methods. Therefore these estimates of FSC coho harvest are likely biased low.
File: CU_status_proportions.txt
Description: Proportion of CUs falling within a given status level.
Variables
- Status: Status under WSP assessment
- Chinook: Chinook salmon CUs
- Chum: Chum salmon CUs
- Coho: Coho salmon CUs
- Pink: Pink salmon CUs
- Sockeye: Sockeye salmon CUs
File: CU_status.txt
Description: This dataset presents CU status across 7 different levels of uncertainty or threat for each CU of five Pacific salmon species in British Columbia and the Yukon. Values in the table represent the number of conservation units for each species that fall into the following status zones: Not Assessed, Data Deficient, Red, Amber-Red, Amber, Amber-Green, and Green.
Variables
- Status: The five status levels (Red, Amber-Red, Amber, Amber-Green, and Green) or sources of uncertainty (Not Assessed, Data Deficient)
- Chinook: The number of Chinook salmon CUs falling into each of the 7 categories identified in the status column.
- Chum: The number of chum salmon CUs falling into each of the 7 categories identified in the status column.
- Coho: The number of coho salmon CUs falling into each of the 7 categories identified in the status column.
- Pink: The number of pink salmon CUs falling into each of the 7 categories identified in the status column.
- Sockeye: The number of sockeye salmon CUs falling into each of the 7 categories identified in the status column.
File: CH2Review_Ind_Pops_data.txt
Description: Data for individual CUs of sockeye salmon in the Skeena River: 1.) Babine-enhanced, 2.) Morice, 3.) Lakelse, 4.) Babine-late-wild, 5.) Kitwancool
Variables
- CU_Name: the name of CU associated with each abundance observation
- Year: The year of a given abundance observation
- T_Idx_E: Total index of escapement, observed in a given year
- CDNHarv: Total Canadian harvest of a given CU, observed in a given year
- AKHarv: Total Alaska harvest of a given CU, observed in a given year
- TotalHarv: Total harvest of a given CU (Alaska + Canada), observed in a given year
- TotalER: Total exploitation for a given year, observed in a given year
Code/software
R is the only software needed to view our data. Figures are generated in base R, with no packages required for visualization.
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- Cited in the paper text and references
Data was derived from the following sources:
- See manuscript text for references to data sets.