To help celebrate the launch of the International Year of the Salmon (IYS), the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) held the IYS Photo Challenge in the North Pacific from September 1 to October 31, 2018. On November 14, 2018, the NPAFC announced the winner of the Photo Challenge—Fernando Lessa, a resident of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The IYS Photo Challenge was put on by the NPAFC to stimulate public interest in the IYS and to celebrate what salmon mean to citizens of NPAFC’s member countries. The topic of the Photo Challenge was “Salmon and people in a changing world.” and participants were also encouraged to incorporate any of the six themes of IYS: status of salmon, salmon in a changing salmosphere, new frontiers, human dimension, information systems, and outreach and communication. Many outstanding submissions were received, making it very difficult to determine a winner. The judges agreed that Mr. Lessa’s photo “Releasing some chinook fry in Surrey!” was the best representation of the challenge theme.

Fernando Lessa (1984, Brazilian) is an outdoor storyteller. With a degree in Biology and a Masters in Photography, Fernando has collaborated with many clients in the search for unique images, and more recently as a writer, publishing two articles on the National Geographic Brazil website. Fernando has been a certified diver since 2004 and a fly fisherman for his whole life. He began his career as a photographic assistant in 2007, before becoming a full-time outdoor photographer in 2013. With extensive experience in the field, Fernando has worked in a variety of areas, from the untouched Amazon forest to tropical and temperate rainforests in South and North America. In Canada, Fernando has run the Urban Salmon Project since 2016 and collaborates with brands, conservancies and governmental agencies dedicated to the protect the environment. The Urban Salmon Project is proud to have PATAGONIA and The Rivers Institute as official partners. To view more of Fernando's work, please follow this link: www.fernandolessa.ca.