Pacific Salmon


Salmon are the backbone of the magnificent coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem of The Great Bear Rainforest.

Salmon directly feed nearly two hundred species and many more species benefit from salmon indirectly.

Learn about their lifecycle, the mysteries of the salmon forest, and watch as one of the largest animal migrations on earth unfolds. Get educated about the decline in salmon and conservation efforts to save this keystone species that makes the Great Bear Rainforest possible.

Witness one of the last places on earth that wild fish run up wild rivers and feed a wilderness like no other. The earliest record of salmon in North America is of the ‘Saber-Tooth Salmon’ in fossils dating up to 7 million years ago … at up to three meters long these weren’t your common ‘salmon’!

There are ten species of Pacific salmon. The seven that occur in B.C. include Sockeye, Chinook, Coho, Pink, Chum, Steelhead Trout, and Cutthroat Trout. Two more occur within North America, Mexican Golden Trout, and Gila Trout, and Masou (or Cherry) salmon occurs only in Asia.  Plus, there are also freshwater forms of Sockeye (Kokanee salmon), Steelhead Trout (Rainbow Trout), and Masou Salmon.

Pacific Wild