Great fishing starts with healthy wetlands

When casting a line, what is in sight is often a pristine lake or river. What is out of sight is the interconnected ecosystems that make landing a great catch possible. The fish that make their way to your favourite fishing spot often rely on local wetlands for critical stages of their life cycle, meaning conserving and restoring these ecosystems supports healthy fish populations for now and for the future. 

Wetlands are important fish habitats; from spawning and nursery grounds to food, shelter, improving and cleaner water, wetlands are quietly working in the background, creating a web of positive downstream effects.   

Learn more about the functions of wetlands

Safe spaces for spawning and young fish

Starting from the very beginning of the life cycle, wetlands are the spawning and nursery grounds for many fish species.

“Because wetlands have abundant submerged vegetation, many fish like laying their eggs there,” says Pascal Badiou, Ph.D., research scientist at Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).

“Some fish like using wetland habitat because it’s generally shallower and warms up faster, which helps eggs develop and young fish grow. Dense vegetation also provides refuge by creating oxygen‑rich areas and safe places for small fish to hide from larger predators.” 

On the coasts of Canada, tidal marshes and estuaries also play an important role in supporting young fish during these early stages. Nic McLellan, M.Sc., research biologist at DUC who oversees the science program in Atlantic Canada, explains that “tidal marshes provide feeding and nursery habitat for a diversity of fish species. They also move nutrients and food into surrounding waters, helping support the entire coastal ecosystem and the fish populations anglers care about. They are the base of the food web of these coastal ecosystems; they’re important to the whole marine environment.” 

On the Fraser River in British Columbia, the largest salmon–bearing river in Canada, DUC senior restoration biologist Eric Balke, M.Sc. leads projects that restore tidal marsh habitat and access to these habitats, providing access for hundreds of millions of juvenile Pacific salmon each year to feed, grow and prepare for life in the ocean.

“If you can imagine that you are a teenage Chinook salmon swimming downstream and you’re about to enter the big, mean ocean, you need to bulk up. These young salmon go into the Fraser Estuary to take advantage of the abundant food from the tidal marshes there to grow bigger and increase their chance of survival in the ocean,” he says.

“But also very importantly, if you think about it from a salmon’s perspective, you’re going from fresh water to salt water. That’s a big physiological challenge. Estuaries help salmon adjust from fresh water to salt water by providing a gradually changing mix of the two, making an otherwise difficult transition easier for young fish.”

Check out the video below to see the Sturgeon Bank Sediment Enhancement Project in action.