Production planning

Every year, our experts work with external parties to take an integrated approach to production planning. Production planning focuses on using hatcheries as a tool for salmon management and recovery. It supports the alignment of salmon production with biological goals. This includes setting clear goals, and identifying and reducing the undesirable effects that enhancement hatcheries can have. The production planning process considers scientific information, Indigenous knowledge, hatchery capacity, and risk assessments to determine the type and number of fish to produce in hatcheries, as well as where and when to release the fish.

Production plans take many factors into consideration, including:

• the benefits, risks and cost of enhancement
• the biological and population characteristics of the fish to be produced
• the capacity of the hatchery in question
• the patterns and needs of regional fisheries
• the best way to support stock assessment
• the current policies, regulations, frameworks and guidelines such as the Wild Salmon Policy
• Canadian Indigenous and treaty rights and international treaties and agreements

Each year is different, and production plans are dynamic and updated as the needs of fisheries or salmon populations change as well as when new scientific information or Indigenous knowledge comes to light.

Related links

• IFMP SEP data tables