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In autumn 2017 a massive pesticide application along the 150 km CN Skeena rail corridor resulted in numerous and extensive apparent violations threatening key habitat for spawning salmon. TBuck launched a campaign in response to ensure the law was appropriately enforced following CN’s dangerous pesticide application. We are pleased that following a long thorough investigation CN Rail was fined $100,000 for failing to get authorization to spray in May 2021, and on September

TBuck is pleased to be able to support Roshni Mangar, as she pursues her MSc at the University of British Columbia. Roshni is the...

What is the Blue Economy?  Canada is creating a nationwide roadmap for ocean development: The Blue Economy Strategy is Canada’s vision to...

Richard Michelson is a salmon, prawn, and herring fisherman from Sointula B.C., a member of the Metlakatla First Nation, and sits on the southern panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission. He currently lives in Campbell River with his wife Emma.  We caught up with Richard while he was re-hanging gillnets with his uncle Gerald Sjoberg in preparation for the upcoming roe-herring fishery. Below is a summary of our Q&A. 

Cory Pearson is a Port Hardy based cod fisherman. She and her partner Mike own and operate the FV Swell Dancer. We caught up with her recently and talked about her taking the jump into fishing full-time. 

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

Jana Bookholt is a deckhand who grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She’s trying her hand at some of the West Coast fisheries and talked with us just after the spot prawn season. Below is a summary of our conversation. 

Tanner Haase is a Pender Harbour-based deckhand, and he talked with us shortly before heading out for the 2020 prawn fishery. Below is a summary of our conversation. 

Jessica Taylor is a deckhand from Sointula. She agreed to talk with the BCYFN a few hours before heading to Knight’s Inlet for the spot prawn fishery. Below is a summary of our conversation.  

In early April, Melissa Collier got an unexpected call. A group of Nanaimo residents wanted to place a large order for swimming scallops, a wild mollusc she and her husband Joel harvest in the Salish Sea. Stuck in lockdown, the group wanted to support local food producers and knew of the Colliers’ scallop business.

Most summers, the docks in Alert Bay are bustling. Fishermen banter with friends and family. Boats steam towards fishing grounds on the North Coast and in nearby creeks and bights. Salmon, halibut, herring – the coastal wealth they’re harvesting will (hopefully) fill freezers and bank accounts and sustain fishing skills and cultural knowledge that have nourished the community for generations.

If isolation has a cure, it’s baiting fishhooks for hours and bobbing on the open sea. The work is physical, repetitive, and for second-generation Victoria-based fish harvester Tiare Boyes, quite similar to waiting out a pandemic.

Two weeks ago, Jordan Belveal watched as shelter-in-place orders shuttered the US west coast and decided it was time to put a long-time dream into action - selling his catch in B.C. Usually, the Nanaimo-based rockfish, halibut, and lingcod fisherman sells to high-end American restaurants. This market has dried up amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and, looking for ways to support his Vancouver Island neighbours, he decided to try and sell his catch locally. A single Facebook post l

Fraser MacDonald needs a big freezer. The Vancouver-based tuna and prawn fisherman is trying to sell more of his catch in B.C., but first he needs somewhere to keep his catch until it sells. He could rent space in an industrial-scale freezer facility, but this option doesn’t offer the 24/7 access he needs to supply the B.C. market he wants to serve. Buying his own cold storage unit – an investment of at least $18 000 – is a key step to growing his locally-focused fishing busi

In 2018, B.C. fishermen harvested wild salmon, swimming scallops, and dozens of species in between. In all, they landed close to 196 300 tonnes of wild seafood, worth about $48 million to the province’s fishermen – yet in BC, it’s difficult to buy fish harvested outside our front door. Most of our fish is exported to the US, China, and close to 80 other countries, while the majority of the fish consumed by BC residents comes from overseas. Why? This blog series features seve

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

Setting gillnets at dawn with a green smoothie in hand, is standard fishing-season practice for Scotia Siider, a 24-year-old, fifth-generation fisherman based in Sointula. Light comes early to the B.C. coast during the summer and the salmon gillnet fishery – open for only a few days each week on a good year – makes up a big part of her livelihood.

Helen-Anne Beans was three years old when she started fishing. It was inevitable – her family has been involved in the commercial fishery for generations, and each summer they’d head out from their home in Alert Bay to fish the B.C. coast. 

Enthusiasm and elbow grease got Laura Moore into fishing almost thirty years ago. They’re the only things about the industry that she hasn’t seen change during her time on the water. Originally from Ontario, Moore washed up in Prince Rupert during a cross-country trip with a friend in the late 1980s. The town was booming at the time, as hundreds of fishermen, cannery workers, and loggers converged on the northern B.C. hub.

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.