NICK HAWKINS
Atlantic salmon: the global fight for a bright future
A complex life cycle and a myriad of threats demand strong, swift, and coordinated action. An international community is ready to answer the call, writes Nathan Wilbur, President of the Atlantic Salmon Federation
A TINY egg has spent the winter nestled amongst river gravel, nourished with oxygen from cold, clean, flowing water. Last fall, a female salmon chose this precise location according to an ancient maternal instinct, honed over millennia of natural selection. Emerging from its egg, the vulnerable alevin then becomes a fry as spring progresses. This is the beginning of one of Earth’s most remarkable life cycles and long-distance migrations: the life of a wild Atlantic salmon.
Ice jams, sedimentation, predation, and disease are but a few of the first dangers faced by an Atlantic salmon before it can even swim. As the young salmon grows, so do its challenges, first in freshwater for several years as a fingerling-sized parr and then in the marine environment after the epic migration begins.
Salmon eggs: precious signs of life, but just the beginning of a long and arduous journey of survival.
NICK HAWKINS
They’re the source of inspiration, food, culture, and identity for people and communities along thousands of rivers
Atlantic salmon from both sides of the Atlantic — North America and Europe — migrate to the North Atlantic Ocean, to places like west Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Along the way, the survivors avoid seals, sharks, tuna, cormorants, and people. Using their internal navigation system, they reach some of the ocean’s most productive ecosystems, where they grow large on rich food sources. Then, the silvery torpedoes turn around and do the journey all over again, heading back to their home rivers to spawn and lay the next generation in the gravel.
Such a migration — often several thousand kilometres — exposes Atlantic salmon to countless natural perils, not to mention the unnatural ones like dams, pollution, sea-cage salmon aquaculture, and rapidly changing environmental conditions. Yet, year after year, a small percentage of survivors, la crème de la crème, make it home. They’re the source of inspiration, food, culture, and identity for people and communities along thousands of rivers.
Salmon have inspired people going back as far as records were kept and oral histories were passed down. More recently, that shared passion has ignited international collaboration and teamwork to help a species that needs it.
A passion for salmon unites people — and it unites nations
So small — yet such a wonder of nature. Atlantic salmon parr need every chance we can give them.
NICK HAWKINS
I am among the fortunate who have been infected with a love for Atlantic salmon and the wild places they call home. My connection comes from a childhood curiosity of the natural world, and from wading in the river waist-deep with a fly-rod in hand and cold water rushing around my legs. All that salmon represent means something to me —strength, resilience, beauty.
I am also fortunate that my path has led to a life’s work in salmon conservation. I joined the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) a decade ago and am now proud to lead the organization as its President. As an international conservation organization with expertise in science, program delivery, advocacy, and education and awareness, ASF has been at the forefront of local, regional, national, and international salmon conservation since 1948. While ASF’s primary operations are in the US, Canada, and Greenland, our work and relationships extend all through salmon country.
This urgent situation has brought organizations closer together than ever
A passion for salmon unites people — and it unites nations. The North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) was established by convention in 1984. Its purpose is to bring countries from the entire range of wild Atlantic salmon together to protect, conserve, and restore the species. One of the early successes of NASCO was to establish a large, protected zone, 12 nautical miles from the coasts, where there is no salmon fishing. According to NASCO, “This resulted in an immediate reduction in the commercial salmon fishery which, at its peak in 1973, harvested some three-and-a-half million salmon.”
ASF is one of several non-governmental organizations with a seat at NASCO, together with the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF) from Iceland and the US, the Atlantic Salmon Trust from the UK, and Norwegian Salmon Rivers, among many others.
The international collaboration is impressive, both within the NASCO framework and beyond, and the issues facing Atlantic salmon demand it. Global pre-fishery abundance of Atlantic salmon has declined from about seven million in 1983 to below an estimated three-and-a-half million in recent years. This urgent situation has brought organizations closer together than ever.
The gauntlet of open-net pen salmon aquaculture, where disease and lice proliferate, threatening salmon smolts on their infant journey. What hope?
TOM CHENEY
For example, in 2023 NASF organized a salmon summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Government agencies, conservation organizations, filmmakers, and philanthropists assembled to discuss problems and solutions to the globe’s salmon issues. One of the focal points was open-net pen aquaculture, an industry that continues to plague wild salmon from Norway to Canada.
Building on that momentum, the Atlantic Salmon Trust and Missing Salmon Alliance delivered what was essentially a world salmon forum in London in 2025. “Wild Salmon Connections” brought together both Atlantic salmon and Pacific salmon conservationists in an impressive three-day event that strengthened relationships formed in Reykjavik two years before.
Emerging from these conferences, the salmon community is more aligned than ever. We’re aligned on the need to match the pace and scale of our work to the urgency of issues facing salmon. We’re aligned on the need to better understand salmon mortality at sea, to invest in science, to push our governments to stop the expansion of open-net pen salmon farming, and to improve climate resilience across salmon country by following through on the international commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and water by 2030.
Because salmon from over 2,000 rivers in Europe and North America migrate to Greenland, it has been a focal area for international teamwork. In 1993, ASF and NASF in Iceland partnered to buy out the 213-ton quota (about 65,000 salmon), followed by another buyout in 1994.
By 2001, we evolved the Greenland conservation agreement into a more sophisticated program by which incentives were provided for fishers to transition to other fisheries, like the lumpfish roe fishery. The goal was to keep the fishery to 20 tons (about 6,000 salmon). This worked well for a decade. The latest agreement began in 2018, and thanks to the Greenland government, mandatory licenses and reporting were implemented. Prior to this, only 25-30 per cent of fishers typically reported their catch. In recent years, this has increased to 80-90 per cent.
It’s not all bad news on the Atlantic salmon front. On the Hunt River in Labrador (on Canada’s east coast) returning salmon numbers having increased significantly since catch-and-release was implemented in 2012. This benchmark wilderness is a model for modern salmon survival and management.
TOM CHENEY
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and ASF is now also looking northward to protect the healthiest populations
In North America, there is a significant north-south health gradient. In the south, salmon populations are endangered, and struggling with compounding issues like warming water, invasive species, dams, and aquaculture. In the north, salmon populations are increasing and places like Labrador have been on an upward trajectory since the early 1990s. A changing climate is believed to actually be helping Canada’s northern salmon populations, increasing the number of days within the optimal temperature range for salmon growth.
Traditionally, the salmon community has focused its investment in the south — fixing problems. Continued investment in restoration in the south is important. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and ASF is now also looking northward to protect the healthiest populations and get ahead of development and climate issues before they arrive.
It’s far easier and more cost effective to keep the population healthy, rather than to come along later and fix what’s broken. We’ve learned that firsthand, for example, with the $65m Penobscot dam removals and now the $300m Kennebec restoration project.
The effort to save Atlantic salmon is making a difference. Since the early 1990s, the total North American adult returns have been on a slightly increasing trend and are currently around 400,000, with recent peaks around 800,000. Our goal is one million.
A strong local, national, and international salmon community adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Through perseverance and wise investment, we can ensure those tiny eggs in the gravel have the conditions they need to survive and take on the world. Together, we can ensure a bright future for wild Atlantic salmon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nathan Wilbur
Nathan Wilbur from New Brunswick became the President of the Atlantic Salmon Federation in 2025 after a decade designing and implementing conservation programs throughout eastern Canada, building coalitions, indigenous partnerships, and carrying out government advocacy to improve salmon management. He is an engineer with expertise in fluvial geomorphology and a passionate salmon angler. Nathan’s interest in the natural world inspired his Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, followed by a Master of Science in Civil Engineering focusing on cold water habitats for Atlantic salmon.
