Fieldnotes 2025 to 2026: Collaboration visualizer

What it takes

Each year DFO Science staff team up with a broad range of regional, provincial, national and international collaborators for the planning, design, delivery, and evaluation of field research and monitoring. In 2025-2026, that’s an anticipated 158 unique collaborators across 94 field operations.

Significantly, between 2019 and 2025, unique Indigenous collaborators participating in field operations increased from 16 to 65—or by 406%! But what does it take to effectively nurture relationships and propel collaborations towards success?

Favorable circumstances and resources play a role, but a clear and shared vision, intentionality, and “relentless incrementalism”^{Footnote 1} matter more. So do the sharing of authorities, co-development, and learning with humility. Overcoming fears and challenging the status quo? Absolutely. Prioritizing the relationships when faced with adversity? Essential.

Dive into these three unfolding stories of our deepening relationships and discover what it takes to answer important scientific questions while progressing towards a better, more inclusive Canada.

Oceanographic monitoring: Clayoquot Sound

Unique ID: OSDOMAP_02

The ʕaḥuusʔatḥ Ha’wiih (Ahousaht Hereditary Chiefs), as represented through the Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (MHSS), are responsible for ensuring that all activities within ʕaḥuusʔatḥ haḥuułii (Territory) benefit the ʕaḥuusʔatḥ musčim (people) collectively and respect ʕaḥuusʔatḥ guiding principles of Iisʔaḱstaƛ (respecting one another), Haaḥuupstaƛ (teaching one another), Ya?akstaƛ (caring for one another), and Huupiił’aƛ (helping one another).

Through their collaboration, MHSS and DFO aim to understand how oceanographic conditions in ʕaḥuusʔatḥ haḥuułii are changing.

2023 fall

MHSS approaches the DFO Ocean Modelling and Predictions Section and successfully collaborates on a Climate Ready BC Seafood Program proposal to investigate marine oxygen conditions, and their potential impacts on ʕaḥuusʔatḥ traditional seafoods.

2024 spring

With funds secured and advice from DFO, MHSS purchases an underwater instrument to monitor conductivity, temperature, depth, and oxygen (CTD) in ʕaḥuusʔatḥ haḥuułii.

2024 summer

DFO and MHSS leadership enter into a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) to formalize their relationship, outline roles and responsibilities, and support ʕaḥuusʔatḥ data sovereignty goals.

2024 fall

MHSS participates in 2 DFO-led training sessions-one virtual and one in ʕaḥuusʔatḥ on CTD deployment, data collection and management.

2024 fall

MHSS begins monthly oceanographic sampling in ʕaḥuusʔatḥ haḥuułii and shares raw oceanographic data with DFO for processing and quality control.

2025 spring

DFO posts processed data to Water Properties, in accordance with ʕaḥuusʔatḥ data sovereignty provisions within the DSA.

2025 spring

Data contribute to MHSS’ assessment of traditional seafood species’ vulnerability to low oxygen and changing ecosystems, as well as to DFO’s nearshore ocean modelling.

Juvenile sockeye nursery lake ecosystem assessments

Unique ID: ESDFE_03

Wild Babine sockeye salmon have been in decline since the ~1970s. Since 2012, Lake Babine Nation (LBN; Donna McIntyre, then Cassie Allen, Fisheries Director) and DFO’s Lakes Research Program (LRP) worked together with a network of experts to develop and apply interdisciplinary scientific knowledge to explore and define limiting factors for Babine Lake sockeye salmon related to environmental changes, at all life stages.

The LBN-DFO team prioritized knowledge sharing and collaboration to build and nurture a strong, productive and progressive relationship. A shared enthusiasm and a strong sense of purpose have been key to a new Nation-to-Nation, values-driven cooperation to rebuild wild Babine sockeye salmon.

2012

DFO approaches LBN and the Skeena Fisheries Commission (SFC) about exploring a productive capacity assessment of Babine Lake, and collectively secure funding from the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) Northern Endowment Fund (NEF).

2013 to 2014

DFO-SFC joint field delivery and analysis of the limnology, hydroacoustic, and trawl survey data indicate substantive ecosystem changes from sampling in the 1970s-1990s.

2016

LBN and DFO successfully renew PSC NEF funding, repeat the 2013 surveys, and engage Queen’s University. DFO provides field and laboratory training to LBN staff, and on-water demonstrations to LBN leadership and members.

LBN and DFO (LRP, Ecosystem Stressors Program) establish an in-lake mooring network, revealing significant physical lake changes from DFO research in the 1970s-1980s.

LBN, Queen’s University, and DFO investigate mechanisms of lake and watershed ecological changes over the last 200 years, identifying key drivers of biological production in the Babine Lake ecosystem.

2017

LBN and DFO co-host a workshop in Smithers, BC to discuss the limnological, salmon, and environmental science results, create space for mutual understanding, and identify next steps in the collaboration.

2020

The LBN, Province of British Columbia, and Canada sign the Foundation Agreement, a shared 20-year vision towards self-government, shared decision-making, and the implementation of LBN Aboriginal title and rights.

2021 to 2022

LBN and DFO install shoreline meteorological stations to integrate with the mooring data and model the physics of Babine Lake into the future.

2024

Guided by LBN values, multiple sectors of DFO and LBN engage in a deeply-informed collaboration to plan the rebuilding of the wild Babine Lake sockeye salmon population.

The late Donna McIntyre, a Lake Babine Nation member and the Fisheries Program Director, had a dream to rebuild Wild Babine Sockeye. Through her unwavering focus and her ability to be the bridge between DFO, Western Science, and Lake Babine Nation Traditional Ecological Knowledge and culture, she has left a legacy of all parties working together towards a common goal.

“As you rest in peace, our friend and mentor, we will carry your vision forward in the rebuilding of the wild Babine sockeye salmon on the yintah, for future generations.” (Cassie Allen, LBN Fisheries Director)

Northeast Pacific deep-sea expedition

Unique ID: ESDMSEA_09

The Marine Planning Program at the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN) and the Deep-Sea Ecology Program at DFO work together to generate science for the discovery, monitoring, and conservation of co-managed deep-sea areas.

Foundational to their relationship, co-production of knowledge is based on Haida ethics, values and laws, and the principles of respect, responsibility, interconnectedness, balance, seeking wise council, and reciprocity. The team celebrates Haida Knowledge – science, history, art, and language – at every opportunity and demonstrates a shared commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

2018

Building on their collaborative nearshore research and efforts to propose the Tang.ɢ̲wan · ḥačxʷiqak · Tsig̱is Marine Protected Area (TḥT MPA), CHN and DFO scientists undertake their first collaborative seamounts expedition and prioritize co-hosting of outreach events, including online streaming of submersible footage and community-based events.

2021 to 2022

The Team co-creates and co-authors the science advice and monitoring framework for the SG̲áan K̲ínghlas-Bowie (SK̲-B) MPA, which includes elements of Haida cultural context and language. The team presents these efforts at the State of the Pacific Ocean meeting.

2022

The team strives for equal representation and champions joint capacity building. During the second joint deep-sea expedition, CHN leads a dive to the sacred summit of SK̲-B. A co-created deep-sea episode featuring the SK̲-B MPA of Live It Earth airs to over 310,000 schools!

2023

The Ocean Decade and Challenger 150 officially endorses the NorthEast Pacific Deep-sea Exploration Project (NEPDEP – a collaboration between CHN, DFO, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, Ocean Networks Canada, Royal BC Museum, and University of Victoria) to discover, explore, and monitor life far below the surface.

2024

NEPDEP works with the Advisory Committee on Undersea Feature Names to add placeholder names for 43 seamounts until Indigenous names are provided, and to formally recognize the official Haida name of the SG̲áan K̲ínghlas-Bowie Seamount.

2024

The team breaks new ground, this time by successfully advocating for the acknowledgement of co-authorship of the SK̲-B MPA monitoring framework through inclusion of the CHN and DFO logos in its Science Advisory Report.

2025

The journey continues as CHN and DFO co-author an ecological and biophysical overview of the Tuzo Wilson Seamount Complex to inform future monitoring, management, and conservation of a globally unique deep-sea area.

Klecko, sne c’al yegh, háw’aa, haawa, thank you to MHSS, LBN, and CHN for co-developing these stories.