Salmon Population Project

Team Members: Sean Haight, Aycin Iplikci-Arodirik, Sayantan Roy, Andrew Staal

Fall 2023 Erdös Institute Data Science Bootcamp

Overview

We are group Salmon.

Salmon populations on the Pacific Coast of North America have been in decline for the last 40 years. Yet salmon have important economic, cultural, and environmental impacts. Indigenous peoples have fished salmon since time immemorial, while commercial and recreational salmon fisheries are worth ~$641 million annually, being a substantial employer in British Columbia. Negative environmental impacts of declining salmon stocks include the disruption of energy and nutrient transfers between the Pacific Ocean and freshwater rivers, and the disruption of the food chain for exotic salmon predators.

Our goal is to study salmon viability, i.e. salmon survival rates, using data science. Here we identify environmental, predatory, and human factors that have the largest impact on salmon populations in the Strait of Georgia. We reduce to a minimal set of features that have the most effect on salmon viability, and build a linear regression model using estimated features. Ultimately, we wish for this to lead to the development of strategies by stakeholders (including salmon fisheries in the Strait of Georgia, local indigenous peoples, environmental groups, and more) for better management of salmon populations.

Repo Organization

Main File

The main modelling file is AllFeatures.ipynb

Data Exploration

The data exploration files are contained in Data_Exploration Folder

Data Sources

Salmon survivals and Zooplankton Biomasses

Perry RI, Young K, Galbraith M, Chandler P, Velez-Espino A, et al. (2021) Zooplankton variability in the Strait of Georgia, Canada, and relationships with the marine survivals of Chinook and Coho salmon. PLOS ONE 16(1): e0245941. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245941

Sea Levels

Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), 2023, "Tide Gauge Data", http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/

BC population

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/statistics/people-population-community/population/population-estimates

WA population

https://ofm.wa.gov/washington-data-research/population-demographics/population-estimates/historical-estimates-april-1-population-and-housing-state-counties-and-cities

Port of Vancouver cargo data

https://www.portvancouver.com/about-us/statistics/

NPGO climate index

http://o3d.org/npgo/

Fraser River flow rates

https://wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/mainmenu/historical_data_index_e.html

Fraser River water quality

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1e0e8033-3113-4297-a813-13ec6f239039

BC Lightstation Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity Data

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/719955f2-bf8e-44f7-bc26-6bd623e82884

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