Glossary

Benchmark: A standard point of reference against which a condition can be compared.

Brood year: The year that a cohort of salmon spawns.

Carrying capacity: The maximum population size that can be sustained indefinitely in the absence of harvesting. Carrying capacity can refer to specific habitats (e.g. a sockeye nursery lake) or over the lifetime of a species (e.g. across life stages).

Catch: The number of adult salmon that are caught in commercial, recreational, and First Nations fisheries.

Conservation Unit (CU): A geographically, ecologically, and genetically distinct population group of wild Pacific salmon. A CU can contain one or more populations of salmon. Conservation Units were created under Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy to enable DFO to identify and manage the diversity of wild salmon.

CU-level: Conservation Unit level is the resolution or geographic scale of the data used for biological status assessments.

DFO or Fisheries and Oceans Canada: The federal government branch responsible for fisheries and oceans management in Canada. Formerly the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is still widely referred to as DFO.

Escapement: The number of mature salmon that pass through (escape) fisheries capture and return to freshwater to spawn.

Exploitation rate: The proportion of the total run or yearly population that is caught in all fisheries.

Freshwater Atlas (FWA): A standardized dataset for mapping British Columbia’s hydrological features, created by the Province of British Columbia.

FWA watershed: Watersheds as represented in the Province of British Columbia’s Freshwater Atlas (FWA) Assessment Watersheds dataset, which are defined at a 1:20,000 watershed scale. FWA assessment watersheds are delineated with sizes between 2,000 to 10,000 hectares by the province.

Habitat indicator: Characteristics of the environment that, when measured, describe habitat condition, the magnitude of stress, degree of exposure to a stressor, or ecological response to exposure.

Indicator stream / non-indicator stream: All spawning streams that are listed to be monitored by DFO are classified as an indicator or non-indicator stream. Indicator streams are those that have been identified in some Regions as providing more reliable indices of spawner abundance. Indicator streams tend to give relatively accurate annual spawner abundance estimates, given that they use higher quality methodologies and are more intensively/regularly surveyed. Indicator streams are also assumed to be representative of spawner returns to other streams in close geographic proximity. Non-indicator streams are typically less consistently surveyed, using more variable methodologies, and/or may simply be difficult to survey (e.g. poor water quality, remote location, etc.).

Life history stage: A classification scheme that divides salmon life stages into categories such as migration, spawning, egg incubation, fry, and juvenile rearing, which are based on body morphology, behavior, and reproductive potential.

Pacific Salmon Explorer: An online data visualization tool created by the Pacific Salmon Foundation displays information on Pacific salmon and their habitats in British Columbia.

Population: A group of interbreeding salmon that are sufficiently geographically isolated from others such that persistent adaptations to their local environmental conditions develop over time. These adaptations have been linked to distinct life-history strategies in order to maximize fitness over time.

Pressure indicator: Measurable extent or intensity of natural processes or human activities that can directly or indirectly lead to changes in habitat conditions or state that can be measured qualitatively or quantitatively.

Recruitment: The individual juveniles that survive and are added to a population. Recruitment in the context of salmon management usually refers to the abundance of adults before fishing. Recruitment is typically calculated as the sum of escapement, all fisheries catches, and estimated pre-spawn and post-release mortality.

Region: A geographic boundary defined by PSF to group Conservation Units into assessment areas in the Pacific Salmon Explorer.

Riparian zone: The area of vegetation near streams and other water bodies that is influenced by the proximity to water. For management, DFO guidelines typically recognize the riparian zone as the terrestrial area within 30 meters of any water body.

Risk: The risk of adverse effects to salmon habitats within a defined zone of influence. Increasing risk levels are defined based on the extent or intensity of impacts relative to defined benchmarks for each habitat indicator.

Run size: The total number of adult salmon that return each year from the ocean, including those that reach the spawning grounds (i.e. estimated spawner abundance) and those that are caught or intercepted on route to the spawning grounds in fisheries.

Salmon Habitat Mapper: An online spatial data visualization tool for exploring and contributing salmon spawning data, created by the Pacific Salmon Foundation to simplify the process of engaging with local experts to document salmon spawning habitat. The Salmon Habitat Mapper allows users to navigate interactive maps and add additional spawning data or comment on existing locations via a password-accessible portal. This data then improves the habitat assessments visualized in the Pacific Salmon Explorer.

Smolt: A juvenile salmon that is mature enough to migrate from freshwater to the marine environment.

Sockeye (lake- vs. river-type): Sockeye belong to one of two distinct life history types, which are described as separate sockeye Conservation Units. After hatching, fry from lake-type sockeye Conservation Units migrate to a rearing lake where they spend a year feeding and maturing into smolts, whereas fry from river-type sockeye Conservation Units rear in flowing water and migrate to the ocean as smolts soon after emergence.

State indicator: Physical, chemical, or biological attributes measured to characterize environmental conditions.

Status: Condition relative to a defined indicator benchmark.

Watershed: The area of land that drains water, sediment, and dissolved materials into a stream, river, lake, or ocean. Watersheds can be defined at various spatial scales, with delineated boundaries ranging from a single tributary stream to an entire mainstem river.

Wild salmon: Salmon are considered “wild” if they have spent their entire life cycle in the wild, originate from parents produced by natural spawning that has also continuously lived in the wild.

Zone of influence (ZOI): Areas upstream or adjacent to the habitats used by salmon during various life stages (e.g. spawning or rearing). ZOIs represent the geographic extent for the assessment of habitat pressure indicators.