The Corporation du bassin de la Jacques-Cartier (CBJC) does a wide variety of work to help bolster Atlantic salmon numbers in that waterbody. However, they have found that many residents of the communities that surround the river don’t even know that there are Atlantic salmon in the river, let alone the challenges they face or why work to support them is important. Public support can be crucial to such efforts so, as CBJC Biologist Esther Carle-Pruneau explains, they saw the need for an awareness campaign surrounding their efforts.

“The CBJC does a lot of work to help support the restoration of the population of Atlantic salmon in the watershed,” said Carle-Pruneau. “We need to make people aware and take action to ensure that they know what work is being done and why it’s important.”

Atlantic salmon numbers in the river have been declining for many years, particularly after the establishment of three dams which limited salmon’s ability to travel the river. Carle-Pruneau says that the CBJC has been working to address those issues since 1979 through efforts such as releasing alevin into the rivers, constructing a migratory pass and transporting salmon to the more fertile spawning grounds when necessary.

“The public doesn’t know the history of the population and why we transport the salmon,” said Carle-Pruneau. “The population has increased over the years but we are still below the critical threshold for the population.”

The current project aims to put Atlantic salmon into the minds and hearts of local residents – making them aware of the populations and the actions that have been implemented to rehabilitate and conserve them. They will accomplish that through an “awareness corridor”, providing elements of awareness at different scales, such as informative placards along the river which will convey the history of management efforts in that sector. The CBJC are also creating three videos which will be released later in the year. They applied to the FCAS and received a $11,355 grant and also received funding through the Québec government’s Programme affluent maritime.

“We want to reach a very large section of the public,” said Carle-Pruneau. “With the videos that we are making right now, we hope that other people will get access to this information. We’re also going to put some information on the sides of the trucks that we use to transport the salmon.”

Carle-Pruneau says that the informative placards will also include QR codes, so interested residents can scan them and receive further information about the CBJC and the work they do. While the videos are expected to be released later this year, much of the works related to the “awareness corridor” will formally launch in 2024.