Barkley Sound sockeye opening, June 2026

Summer 2026 marketing report

The season we told the story of

The season was forecast to be the strongest since 2018, but the return fell short. We still brought BC fishers, boats and chefs to new audiences on the water, in the press and on the menu.

934Kviews on our top Barkley Sound reel

208media pickups via national newswire

8editorial features, including Intrafish

6hosted media dinners

9restaurants with BC salmon on the menu

4local creators posting about wild BC salmon

On the water

We filmed the Barkley Sound opening

We hired a video team and spent opening day on the water and at the dock with the gillnet fleet. The footage became our summer's Instagram reels.

Several reels passed 100,000 views. "This is where it all begins" reached 934,000, and "How gillnet fishing works," a collaboration with Organic Ocean, reached 374,000.

Our own video reached audiences far beyond the paid creator posts this summer. The footage keeps working: it's now on the new bcsalmon.ca.

Instagram reel of a fisher at the stern of the Point Blank, 934K views

934Kviews · 9,203 likes
"This is where it all begins"

Instagram reel of the Side Bet setting a gillnet, 374K views

374Kviews · 5,402 likes
with Organic Ocean

Instagram reel of a wild salmon dish at Kavita, 5.2K views

5.2Kviews
with Kavita restaurant

Two fishers pulling a sockeye from the gillnet off the stern of the Side Bet

The Side Bet under low cloud in Barkley Sound

A fisher hauling a crate of iced sockeye along the dock

A gillnet fisher in yellow bib overalls at the harbour

Hands filleting bright red sockeye on a cutting board

Offloading sockeye from a boat's hold at the Port Alberni dock

Gillnetters tied up at the dock with orange floats

Stills from the June 9 opening. The full shoot includes 80 photos and video footage, now in the BC Salmon asset library.

In the media

Earned coverage, coast to trade press

Our PR partner SMC sent the season-opening news out on the national newswire and hosted journalists and creators at partner restaurants.

Board favourite

Intrafish

The leading international trade publication for seafood buyers, processors and importers.

June 17, 2026

"They can't keep up cutting the fish": BC salmon season opens into World Cup surge

Intrafish covered the season opening, when the strongest sockeye forecast since 2018 lined up with World Cup crowds in Vancouver, and named the BC Salmon Marketing Council's focus on wild sockeye. This put our message in front of the trade buyers who decide what lands on menus and shelves.

Read the Intrafish article

Food & lifestyle

BCLivingMaple Dijon Cured Wild BC Sockeye recipe
Georgia StraightHosted dinner at Savio Volpe
Hello VancityHosted dinner at Savio Volpe
FoodgressingFeature, post and stories from Lift
MyVanCityFeature and reel from Lift
Vancouver Is Awesome
Maggie's Fabulous Food Blog

Reach & creators

208 newswire pickupsAcross Canada and North America, including The Globe and Mail
District LocalInstagram post, 22.4K followers, 63 shares
Good Life VancouverInstagram post from Honey Salt
FoodgressingInstagram post and stories
MyVanCityInstagram reel and stories

Still to come

Taste & TravelRecipes confirmed for an upcoming fall issue
MICHELIN GuideUpcoming feature, possible mention of Organic Ocean
Edible VancouverFollow-up for future editorial

Restaurant partners

Wild BC salmon on Vancouver menus

Nine restaurants put wild BC salmon on their menus for our summer promotion. Three also hosted media and creators.

Honey Salt

Parq VancouverMedia visit

Hosted Good Life Vancouver for an Instagram feature.

parqcasino.com

Lift Bar Grill View

Coal HarbourMedia visit

Hosted several media visits, with coverage from Foodgressing and MyVanCity.

liftbarandgrill.com

Pier 7

Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier, North Vancouverpinnaclepierhotel.com

Published on Main

Main Streetpublishedonmain.com

Restaurant Kavita

On our Instagram

Joint Instagram reel with BC Salmon, 5.2K views.

restaurantkavita.com

Savio Volpe

Fraser StreetMedia visit

Coverage from Georgia Straight, Hello Vancity and District Local.

saviovolpe.com

BC Day

Out in the community

We were at the BC Day event to meet people face to face, and Sally joined us. She was a hit with the crowd.

What's next

Finding every opportunity for wild BC salmon

The summer gave us strong content and momentum. This fall the focus shifts to new channels, new funding and a bigger idea for the whole coast.

This fallIn progress

Launch the new bcsalmon.ca

A redesigned homepage, Five Species, Sustainability and Recipes pages. Launching this fall.

With the new sitePage built

A Harvesters page for the fleet

A new page on bcsalmon.ca for the harvesters and processors who make wild BC salmon possible. It brings together the tools and links the fleet already looks for, and invites fishers to share their stories with us.

Harvest & season updatesLinks to official run-size and catch data from the Pacific Salmon Commission and DFO
Brand & marketing toolkitLogos, approved photos, fact sheets and social assets, free to use
Supplier & processor directoryA searchable listing of BC wholesalers, and how to get added
Share your storyFishers can submit photos and offer to be featured on the site and social
Industry news & eventsDFO fishery notices and BC Seafood Alliance news in one place

After the Harvesters pagePlanning

Monthly emails to the fleet

I'm bringing back our monthly emails, starting once the Harvesters page and its new assets are live. The focus will be harvesters: season updates, new marketing assets they can use, and stories from the fleet. The new levy system will also make it much easier to keep an up-to-date list of levy payers to send to.

Launching 2027Prototype built

The BC Salmon Levy Portal

A new online system for paying and managing BC Salmon's 0.5% levy, which funds all of our marketing. Processors file their monthly reports and pay online, and see their balance owing, next report date and levy paid for the year in one place.

The portal also includes a refund page for fishermen, automatic email notices, and an admin view for the council to track every account. A working prototype with demo data is built on the BC Salmon site.

End of OctoberMaterials going out

Wild BC salmon on Seafood Canada

We're sending content to Seafood Canada so wild BC salmon is featured on its site, another place for shoppers to find our story.

ExploringTwo meetings held

Community Catch certification

Community Catch is a certification built for small-scale wild fisheries that covers both environmental and social responsibility. Entry starts with a free self-assessment. It could be a lower-cost complement to MSC rather than a replacement.

The scheme is young, so we're testing it carefully before recommending anything. communitycatch.org

ResearchingIntake details to come

The BC Fisheries Fund

Canada and BC announced the fund on August 20, 2026. It includes a new pillar for market development and diversification, which opens the door to marketing projects. I'm looking at it for two things: BC Salmon's own marketing, and the Wild BC Seafood concept below.

$106.5Mover five years

60 / 40federal / provincial

After the site launchDiscussion draft

Wild BC Seafood

Alaska markets all its seafood under one brand, using the same 0.5% levy BC Salmon already collects. Salmon is only 5 to 8% of BC's wild landed value, so a salmon-only budget will always be small. A shared council across all wild fisheries could fund real promotion at home and in export markets, with BC Salmon becoming its salmon committee.

Brenda at the BC Seafood Alliance is interested in the concept. I'll make this my focus once the new site is live, starting with conversations with fishery associations this fall.

$115–160Klevy today, salmon only

$1.9–2.5Ma year if every wild fishery joins