How wild Atlantic and Pacific salmon populations face multiple threats and what conservation approaches best protect both populations and individuals.
Wild salmon conservation and welfare are inseparable — population decline and individual welfare harm are often driven by the same threats. Sea lice from salmon farms infect wild smolts in ways that cause physiological stress and elevated mortality. Degraded river habitat forces fish to navigate barriers and unsuitable conditions. Warming ocean temperatures drive metabolic stress. The welfare of individual wild salmon is thus a conservation indicator: populations with good welfare — adequate food, appropriate temperatures, low parasite loads — are populations that will recover more effectively. Conservation approaches that address habitat quality, temperature, and disease vectors simultaneously serve both population-level and individual welfare goals.