I know here in BC there was a virus we determined to be a major factor in salmon deaths (largely spread by salmon farms along the coast), which lead to respirat

I know here in BC there was a virus we determined to be a major factor in salmon deaths (largely spread by salmon farms along the coast), which lead to respiratory damage in the fish immediately before they would spawn. At the time, our department of fisheries was saying “we know this isn’t the sole cause of the decline, but it’s a significant part of it” and other factors were thought to be overfishing, climate change, and pollutants. So, this dovetails nicely with that theory. One of the things they stressed was that we probably wouldn’t be overfishing if the pollutants and disease factors were gone. This message, I believe, lead to a lot of bad press for fish farms which thankfully lead to a lack of support and the eventual removal of them from our waters (though we still have some remaining, eventually they will be gone). If we can solve the pollution factor, maybe we will see improved salmon returns. If people are aware of which pollutants to target, perhaps we will see a similar revolt against them like we did with fish farms. Here’s hoping.