Report

Highlights from the year include an ocean acidification monitoring program implemented with fish harvesters working as citizen scientists, continued advocacy for equitable fisheries policy through the Fisheries for Communities campaign, expanding education work through the Giving Voice speaker program, and community engagement efforts at seafood festivals across the coast. This year we also renewed our strategic plan for the organization, solidifying our goals for the future.

This study conducted an online survey among commercial fishers in Canada's Pacific region, revealing significant concern for climate change and its impacts on their livelihoods and well-being. The findings emphasize the need for inclusive and transparent adaptation planning that addresses social dimensions and considers the concepts of distributive and procedural justice. Effective and equitable responses to climate change in fisheries require a comprehensive understanding of

The provincial government has released a cohesive strategy to guide the development of the BC coastline, the Coastal Marine Strategy. The creation of a Coastal Marine Strategy presents a great opportunity to address the needs of communities along the coast and enhance the abundant ecosystem they call home. The TBuck Suzuki Foundation put forward recommendations for the CMS in two reports.

The Seaweed Commons supports an ecosystem-based approach to the development of the seaweed aquaculture industry in North America, informed by research to ensure that farms are in appropriate locations, of appropriate size, and protect biodiversity. Their collectively authored paper presents a precautionary approach to managing seaweed cultivation as pressure and funding build behind the industry. The TBuck Suzuki Foundation supported drafting the position paper and has signed

The legal access policies currently regulating B.C. fisheries are failing many fishermen and coastal communities. Based on a market-driven philosophy, access to our fisheries is being turned into an investor controlled commodity. This has increased licence and quota value far beyond what most fishermen and coastal communities can afford, leaving many to lease the right to harvest fish from our water, sometimes for up to 80 percent of the landed catch value. If prices drop dur

Fisheries management in B.C. has historically focused exclusively on sustaining marine ecosystems' biological health, with little consideration granted to the fisheries' socio-economic and cultural contributions to coastal communities' well-being. This narrow vision of sustainability in fisheries management has had devastating impacts on B.C.'s coastal communities. We contributed to the paper, Integrating Diverse Objectives for Sustainable Fisheries in Canada that proposes a

We have been involved in pollution prevention work since our founding in 1981. The documents in this page comprise different aspects of this work that don't fit easily in other parts of our publications page.

We initiated the Thriving Coastal Communities Initiative with Dr. Nathan Bennett to identify areas where we could support coastal communities as they adapt to these changes. This report covers one of the project’s early planning meetings we convened with 24 experts and through-leaders to map out areas for further development.

We have successfully pushed for policy reforms to reduce oceanic plastic pollution, including commissioning two reports proposing policy solutions to the issue that helped the federal government develop it's 2019 anti-single-use plastic legislation. We have also written on the issue.

In 2015 and 2017, we compiled data from several different sources to identify the state of B.C.'s coastal communities. The resulting reports provide snapshots into the most pressing issues currently facing rural, coastal regions and have helped guide our work since. The reports are available below:

The importance of commercial fisheries to B.C.'s coastal communities is poorly documented, and often overlooked in discussions concerning the future of Canada's west coast. In 2015, we partnered with Ecotrust Canada to identify the full suite of economic, social, and cultural values commercial fisheries bring to the North Coast.

We have worked on campaigns to reduce the volume and toxicity of sewage entering B.C. waters through municipal water treatment systems....