Protecting wild Salmon isn’t just about securing a fishery, it’s about sustaining a web of life – from aquatic invertebrates and orca whales to human communities. And very few people are as close to this topic as those working at Wild Salmon Center.
Today, we’re proud to bring you a story about an organization that’s at the forefront of Salmon conservation. David Finkel, Vice President of Development & Communications and Executive Director of WSC’s Stronghold Fund, describes Wild Salmon Center’s work and why it’s so important to protect Salmon and their ecosystems.
Drawn to Nature from an Early Age
David grew up in Olympia, WA, and spent his childhood exploring in and around Puget Sound. “Budd Inlet was a short walk or bike ride away, and on any given summer day we’d grab our dinky fishing rods and fish for anything we could – Bullhead, Perch, Flounder, and things like that,” he says, before explaining how a hobby became a passion.
“As we got a little bit older, it dawned on us that there were Salmon in Puget Sound, often traveling just offshore, within reach of our casts. Every once in a while, we’d hook one of these beautiful, 10- or 12-pound Silvers (Coho Salmon), have the fight of our lives, and bring home delicious fresh fish for dinner.”
For David, it was a magnetic force that drew him to the water, and a deep curiosity to learn more about what lived and swam in Puget Sound. These early experiences seeded his career in conservation. He’s spent almost 20 years working at Wild Salmon Center, helping establish WSC as the leading conservation organization focused on wild Salmon and Steelhead.
Trusting Science to Protect Salmon
Wild Salmon Center is an international conservation organization focused on protecting wild Salmon, Steelhead, and Trout in the North Pacific. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, they have offices in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, with almost 50 people working there.
Their mission? “To promote the conservation and sustainable use of wild salmon ecosystems across the Pacific Rim,” David sums up.
“Everything we do at Wild Salmon Center is grounded in science,” he says. “And if you look at the North Pacific region on a map, you’ll see it’s an archipelago of these incredible, vast watersheds. Among them, we have identified the most important places for wild Salmon. We call them strongholds.”
David goes on to explain that Wild Salmon Center is unique in its approach to conservation.
“We work under the precautionary principle. That means getting in early and protecting key habitats before something harmful or damaging happens that could impact salmon populations.”
The strongholds that Wild Salmon Center focuses on are the richest, healthiest Salmon rivers in the Pacific Rim. To preserve them, WSC works proactively, implementing protections for key watersheds before a dam is built, before a forest is clearcut, or before a destructive mine is constructed in the headwaters of a river.
“Employing a proactive conservation strategy has been impactful, and it also turns out to be a great investment. Billions have been spent trying to bring back Salmon populations from the brink, oftentimes with not much to show for those efforts. We have learned that once a Salmon population crashes or a habitat is destroyed, it’s very difficult to restore them. That’s not to say that it’s not worth trying – it is– and WSC does vital, targeted restoration work too. But getting in early and protecting systems that are still healthy and thriving is a really important part of WSC’s conservation strategy – and it’s something we’ve been working with partners on for over 30 years.”
The Stronghold Fund
Wild Salmon Center, as David explains, breaks down their conservation efforts into three key areas:
- Habitat conservation. Conserving and restoring critical Salmon habitats.
- Wild fish management. Working to ensure policies, practices, and agreements are in place to protect wild fish runs for the long term.
- Local capacity. Supporting and empowering local organizations and stewards to ensure they have what they need to safeguard their home watersheds.
“That’s our three-pronged strategy,” David says, “And we use the Stronghold Fund to help put it in motion. The Stronghold Fund is a resource to help shore up our local partners, and together we can react quickly to a conservation opportunity or a potential threat to any salmon stronghold.”
“The Stronghold Fund has also been a way to support new partnerships, including Coastal Rivers Conservancy, a core WSC partner that helps lead conservation work in the central coast of British Columbia.”
The Importance of Salmon
Many people working at Wild Salmon Center have spent their careers fighting to conserve Salmon and their ecosystems. But why these fish? What’s so important about Salmon in particular?
David explains that Salmon are a keystone species. “From tiny aquatic organisms that eat spawned-out salmon carcasses, all the way up the food chain to orca whales and brown bears, Salmon are the diet of at least 137 other species. They’re also a sustainable source of protein for millions of people in the North Pacific and beyond.”
And there are also a whole other set of benefits that come when you protect Salmon habitats. “You’re protecting clean sources of drinking water and you’re protecting intact forests and wetlands, which are very important areas for carbon sequestration.”
David goes on to point out that there’s also something inspiring about Salmon that simply enthralls anyone who spends long enough time being around them. Their journey from freshwater to saltwater and back, only to spawn and ultimately die so their offspring could live, is nothing short of heroic.
What it Takes to Protect Salmon
The challenges of Salmon conservation are complex and diverse. Wild Salmon Center has worked from Japan and the Russian Far East to Alaska and British Columbia to the US Pacific Northwest and California. Different challenges and opportunities emerge depending on the region and the particulars of a given place or stronghold.
“Bristol Bay, for example, an enormous Salmon-producing region in Alaska, was a national campaign,” David says. “That took widespread effort in Alaska and across the US, including Washington D.C., to make sure we were meeting our coalition’s goals. The scientific findings were clear: if the Pebble Mine were to be built, it would have a devastating effect on Bristol Bay’s wild Salmon population, which is the most important wild Sockeye Salmon fishery on Earth. Communicating the facts about the risks of Pebble Mine to broad and diverse audiences was a critical component of our coalition’s campaign.”
Of course, not every campaign is as big as Bristol Bay. “In places such as Mongolia, for example, data collection on Taimen populations and their habitat is an important first step to building a long-term conservation strategy. So again, with science as our back-stop, WSC relies on three core strategies mentioned earlier – habitat, wild fish management, and local capacity in each of the places we work.”
Key Achievements and Victories
David highlights the protection of Bristol Bay as one of WSC’s and its partners’ biggest achievements. “We have the existential threat to build the Pebble Mine, a massive mineral deposit in the headwaters of Bristol Bay – the most important wild Salmon fishery in the world. Sockeye Salmon runs in recent years have topped up 50 million wild Salmon – just staggering abundance.”
“When you fly over Bristol Bay, you understand how vast it is. It’s a giant network of lakes, rivers, and wetlands, many of which are interconnected by surface and groundwater. Building and operating a huge open-pit mine in an environment like this would pose a fundamental threat to the Salmon fishery and the ecosystem.”
To defend it, Wild Salmon Center worked with a coalition of partners, including the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, and together achieved an important policy outcome, ensuring Bristol Bay received habitat protections under the Clean Water Act.
Wild Salmon Center has made gains in each stronghold region where they work. On the Skeena River in British Columbia, WSC worked closely with SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and First Nation partners to prevent an LNG terminal from being built in the river’s estuary, protecting sensitive rearing grounds for the entire watershed’s Salmon and Steelhead.
And in Washington and Oregon, they’ve worked with local tribes and other partners to restore degraded Salmon streams and open up freshwater habitat by building state-of-the-art culverts, ensuring both juvenile and adult Salmon can migrate safely up and down stream.
Salmon Fishing and Conservation
Since he’s an avid fly fisherman himself, we asked David about his take on fishing for vulnerable species. He provided us with a few practical tips on how to fish with conservation in mind:
- Use barbless hooks if you’re not keeping fish. Barbless hooks cause less harm, leading to faster releases and better survival rates.
- Try to keep any fish in the water, even if it’s tempting to take them out to snap some hero shots. David recommends taking a look at the Keep Fish Wet campaign for instructions on how to handle fish properly.
- Mind the water temperatures. During summer, when water temperatures get into the 70s, it becomes much more difficult for fish to revive after being caught. So, if you have the option, bear the heat and time of day in mind before you start fishing.
Get Involved
For anyone looking to get involved with Wild Salmon Center and their efforts, you can follow their work on social media and sign up for their newsletter. You can also help support the WSC financially by donating to them.
David was also excited to tell us that Wild Salmon Center is a partner on the first-ever IMAX film on Salmon that’s coming out in 2026. He asks everyone to go see the film once it’s out.
“Bring your family and friends, you’re going to learn a lot more about Salmon and you’re hopefully going to be inspired and engaged to get involved. We’re hoping that this film ignites a passion for wild rivers and wild Salmon, and after watching the IMAX, people will better understand why Salmon conservation is about so much more than just fish. When we protect Salmon, we protect everything in a watershed, ourselves included.”
In his final remarks, David invited us to continue to enjoy eating salmon. “Fish for them, do it right, eat wild Salmon. We get that question all the time – should we eat them? Yes, absolutely, if you know it’s coming from a healthy run. When you eat healthy runs of wild Salmon, you’re supporting commercial fishermen, many of whom are our partners.”
How did you enjoy the article? What are your thoughts on the topic of Salmon conservation? Let us know in the comments below.
