Work to protect juvenile salmon in Fraser River’s north arm a success: Conservationists

A 30-metre breach cut into the Fraser River's North Arm Jetty is already helping young fish avoid being pushed out into the Strait of Georgia too early, conservationists say.

Conservationists are celebrating the success of an initiative they say will help protect juvenile salmon as they migrate out of the Fraser River watershed.

In March, a group led by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation created a 30-metre breach in the North Arm Jetty, a seven-kilometre long man-made finger that extends into the Strait of Georgia at the end of the river’s north arm.

Conservationists say the structure forces young salmon into the high deeper, high salinity water of the Georgia Strait before they are ready.

In their juvenile stage, the fish rely on the brackish marsh habitats between the river and the strait to rear and feed before they’re prepared to transition to the ocean.

“They want to be able to move slowly from fresh water into higher salinity waters, getting more and more salty as they move out, and these jetties really make that impossible,” explained David Scott, Lower Fraser research and restoration coordinator for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

“We’re trying opt allow them to move back into those transition areas where they can feed and grow and get ready for salt water before they move into the ocean.”

The jetty has been in place for more than a century, and was originally installed to allow the channel to be dredged so ships could access the river’s north arm.

Raincoast said the team has now observed juvenile Chinook using the passage, an immediate success it described as “rare” in a conservation project.