BCBusiness

12 P h o t o s : O r g a n i c s O c e a n S e a f o o d ; illu s t r a t i o n s : i S t o c k B C B U S I N E S S . C A S E P T E M B E R 2 0 24 GO FIGURE by Michael McCullough There are approximately 85,000 registered charities in Canada. 77 percent of them take in less than $500,000 per year; 59 percent have no full-time staff. WHO GIVES? To go along with our special report on philanthropy (see p.51), we thought we'd take the pulse of B.C.'s charitable sector WHERE THE MONEY GOES AT CANADIAN CHARITIES: ▶86% charitable activities ▶9% administration ▶4% other expenses ▶ 1% fundraising It was on a trip to Kam- loops in the fall of 2022 that Dane Chauvel could see, stark- ly, just how much B.C. salmon are under threat. The second- generation fisherman, founder of Organic Ocean Seafood and chair of the BC Salmon Market- ing Council, had been invited to Kamloops to tour a major habitat restoration project that was being undertaken by the Stk'emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation. The problem was, be- cause of a worsening drought, there were no fish. "Because the fish aren't making it from the marine to the freshwater environ- ment, you see these beautiful spawning beds and migratory pathways, but they have no fish in them. It was dramatic," says Chauvel. "Most of us don't have any sense of how bad it is until you actually go there and start walking the streams and you see no salmon. In many cases, the water was down to a trickle." After several years of climate shifts including record- breaking temperatures, low snowpack, drought, atmo- spheric rivers, forest fires and other extreme weather events, it's no longer an uncommon sight in B.C. Climate change has led to rising water temperatures, reduced river levels, lower dis- solved oxygen levels, a smaller food supply and other factors that are threatening salmon populations across the prov- ince—and, by extension, the B U S I N E S S C L I M AT E SWIMMING UPSTREAM B.C.'s salmon industry is facing steep challenges from climate change fishing industry. As a result, says Chauvel, fishers are leav- ing the business en masse. "There are two issues. One is the locked-in lack of predict- ability. You can't business plan if you don't have any idea what to expect," argues Chauvel. "The second is that you have interruptions in production. You'll have seasons where you have no fish—and if you have no fish you have no income. How do you keep people employed? That's a major problem." Unpredictable returns are also a major problem for many Indigenous communi- ties that rely on salmon not only for their businesses but also for food, culture and the environment. Tara Marsden, an independent contractor with the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, says they are seeing drought and wildfire in areas where they haven't seen those events before. Two streams in north- western B.C.'s Meziadin River system used to produce 80 percent of the Nass River sockeye, she says, but with less snowpack, some stretches have run completely dry. Shifting rain patterns have also meant that salmon get stuck waiting for cooler waters before heading upstream. "One stream went from 20,000 spawners returning annually to as low as 100," by Jennifer Van Evra Jennifer Van Evra is an award-winning Vancouver journalist, broadcaster and UBC writing instructor. SMOKED OUT Salmon populations are dwindling due to a number of envi- ronmental factors MR. BRIGHTSIDE Dane Chauvel is optimistic about our fish industry

• Cover