No ordinary fish. No ordinary year.

© Uryadnikov Sergey | Adobe Stock

The International Year of the Salmon Initiative
2018–2022

Establishing the conditions necessary to ensure the resilience of salmon and people in a rapidly changing world.

The International Year of the Salmon (IYS) was a five-year initiative that aspires to establish the conditions necessary to ensure the resilience of salmon and people throughout the Northern Hemisphere. While salmon have a high degree of resilience built into their genetic make-up, increasingly extreme and uncertain climate conditions, coupled with continuous human activity, threaten their survival. Epic salmon migrations through rivers and oceans take salmon across borders and cultures, sustaining this species therefore requires a uniquely large-scale solution.

The International Year of the Salmon (IYS) was been governed by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) and the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO).

Resources

IYS Resources

Click the button below to learn more about the IYS and access IYS blogs, articles, publications, and media, and learn more about signature projects 

Photo credit: Dr. Paul Vescei, winner of the 2020 IYS Photo Challenge

IYS Synthesis Symposium

Learn about the IYS Synthesis Symposium held from October 4–6, 2024, in Vancouver BC, Canada.

Photo credit: Natalie Sopinka

IYS Signature Projects

Visit the links below to learn about our successful signature projects, including our pan-Pacific research expeditions, and to access IYS archives!

2022 Pan-Pacific Winter High Seas Expedition

Visit our 2022 Pan-Pacific Winter High Seas Expedition ArcGIS Story Map to learn more about the largest ever pan-Pacific expedition to study the winter ecology of salmon in the North Pacific Ocean.

IYS High Seas Expeditions

Visit our High Seas Expeditions page to learn more about all three international IYS research expeditions, and to access expedition resources.

IYS Data Mobilization Portal

A portal for centralized access to documentation, tutorials, data summaries, and data products from the IYS expeditions.

 

 

The Likely Suspects Framework

The goal of the Likely Suspects Framework (LSF) is to provide practical advice to managers and decisionmakers by identifying the main sources of salmon mortality and their cumulative effects across the life cycle of a salmon population of interest.

Photo credit: Jonny Armstrong