Our Partners
We recognize that each of our partners has its own capacity, expertise, and specific knowledge that supports the interests and needs of its member Nations. We also recognize we’re stronger when we work together. To leverage First Nations’ and their fisheries organizations’ capacity and territorial knowledge, we’ve formalized partnerships with regional AAROM bodies across the Fraser River freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Under our Fraser Salmon Memorandums of Unity, FSMC partners appoint their technical representatives to the Joint Technical Committee, where the representatives share and utilize their technical expertise, capacity, and local knowledge of salmon conservation, protection, rebuilding, and fisheries management to inform the analysis and development of recommendations to the Fraser Salmon Management Board. Our partners also work with us to facilitate communication, engagement, and information sharing between Fraser First Nations in their respective regions in support of issues of mutual concern and to promote First Nations governance, management, and conservation of Fraser salmon.
Executive Directors and senior biologists from our partner organizations come together under a committee convened by the FSMC called the Fraser Intertribal Salmon Harmonization Coalition.
IMAWG LFFA UFFCA SFC
The FSMC also collaborates with the First Nations Fisheries Council under a partnership accord. This accord acknowledges our intention to work collaboratively at a provincial scale, to advance First Nations’ interests as they pertain to Fraser salmon fisheries and natural resources.
Our Projects
To advance nation-to-nation governance, salmon fisheries management and conservation, and to ensure the recognition and preservation of First Nations salmon fisheries, culture, and traditional laws, the FSMC undertakes and participates in projects that convene First Nations for collaborative governance and strategic action.
In 2025, the FSMC continued to advance its exploration of First Nations' interests in and capacity for a Fraser Sockeye Food, Social, and Ceremonial (FSC) Fisheries Sharing Framework. We also began to work with our partners to operationalize the Fraser Intertribal Salmon Harmonization Coalition. This work will advance the implementation of the Fraser Salmon Memorandums of Unity and our collective interest in forming an inter-AAROM collaborative.
Fraser Sockeye Food, Social, and Ceremonial (FSC) Fisheries Sharing Framework
Canada’s aggregate-based management system does not meet the needs of many First Nations, and a paradigm shift is required to move toward salmon conservation and sustainable fisheries. The current fisheries management approach for Fraser River sockeye is not working for First Nations. Many First Nations in the Fraser’s mid and upper watersheds have access to only one or two stocks of sockeye; for these First Nations, it is the return of sockeye to their territory that determines their fishing success, not the total return of sockeye to the Fraser River.
Inherent First Nations Title and Rights to salmon fisheries, including management authority, are protected under Section 35(1) of Canada’s Constitution. However, the breadth and depth of First Nations management authority are unclear and further complicated by the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the Fraser Panel Process. The Fraser Salmon CMA provides us an opportunity to examine and define the breadth and depth of First Nations authority as it pertains to Fraser sockeye.
The FSMC is exploring with Fraser First Nations (FSMC signatory and non-signatory Nations) and our partners what would be required to develop a First Nations-led management and sharing plan for Fraser sockeye (collectively called a Fraser FSC Fisheries Sharing Framework). This project intends to build an understanding of:
First Nations’ regional technical and political challenges, aspirations, and capacity for developing and implementing a Fraser sockeye sharing framework;
First Nations principles for regional fisheries harvest, conservation, management, and sharing to guide framework development.
Access background materials and project updates here.
Fraser Intertribal Salmon Harmonization Coalition
While still in its formative stages, the FISH Coalition intends to advance First Nations-led fisheries management and conservation strategies for Fraser River salmon stocks. The FISH Coalition is a coalition of regional AAROM organizations supported by a technical focus group and an executive committee for:
Identifying mutual goals and objectives, and agreed-upon priority work items
Providing science-based and Indigenous knowledge-informed advice to decision makers for Fraser salmon management
Leveraging collective expertise for First Nations engagement in fisheries and conservation policy
Supporting long-term salmon rebuilding strategies
Visit our archives page for resources generated through previous projects:
Chinook Recovery and Rebuilding Initiative
Big Bar Landslide
Chinook Recovery and Rebuilding Initiative
From 2022 to 2024, the FSMC undertook the Chinook Recovery and Rebuilding Initiative to examine how to strengthen First Nations’ roles in rebuilding Fraser Chinook salmon stocks. The project was premised on our belief that more technical collaboration and inclusion of First Nations interests is required to reverse Fraser salmon declines and to protect and enhance salmon biodiversity for the future. Our goal was to build a shared understanding of the context, challenges, and opportunities for First Nations to contribute to collaborative planning and rebuilding projects for Chinook salmon and to lay the foundation for a technical collaborative structure to ensure a First Nations leadership role in supporting and coordinating Fraser salmon recovery and rebuilding efforts across governance levels and geographic scales.
Outputs from this project were informed by dialogue sessions, workshops, and gap analyses with First Nations and their fisheries organizations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Province of BC, and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. The legacy of this project is the development of Fraser Salmon Memorandums of Unity with our AAROM partners, and the creation of the Fraser Intertribal Salmon Harmonization Coalition.
Looking forward, the project team suggested that all decision-makers, governments, First Nations, funders, and other salmon stewards should consider the collaborative creation of data management systems and processes for sharing, connecting, and monitoring the complex realm of salmon recovery and rebuilding.
Swimming Upstream- Comprehensive Live Salmon Database
Big Bar Landslide - A Trilateral Response
In 2019, a large rockslide at Big Bar on the Fraser River created a significant barrier to salmon migration, placing multiple Fraser salmon populations at risk. The response to the Big Bar Landslide required coordinated, multi-year efforts involving First Nations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Provincial technical experts to restore fish passage, assess impacts, and support salmon recovery. The FSMC has supported collaboration, coordination, and information-sharing related to Big Bar response efforts, helping to ensure that First Nations’ perspectives, knowledge, and priorities inform ongoing recovery actions and long-term considerations for the governance, management, and conservation of Fraser salmon.
Visit the Archived Big Bar Landslide page in the Archives Page
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Fraser Salmon Management Council
