Wild salmon populations have declined catastrophically across their historic range. Dam removal, habitat restoration, and pollution reduction are restoring rivers and the populations of these iconic migratory fish.
Wild salmon navigating fragmented river systems face welfare costs that domesticated counterparts do not: blocked migration routes that lead to frustrated upstream movement and downstream passage barriers; temperature stress in warming rivers; disease and parasite exposure from farm fish; and degraded spawning habitats where successful reproduction is compromised. Each salmon that fails to reach spawning grounds after the energetic investment of a marine migration dies without reproducing — a welfare and conservation loss simultaneously. Habitat restoration that removes barriers and restores cool, clean water enables salmon to complete their life cycle in conditions appropriate to their evolutionary heritage.