Salmon hold an iconic status along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. These fish historically provided critical ecosystem services and substantial economic benefits to these regions. Over harvest, fish passage barriers, habitat destruction, in combination with other factors have resulted in extirpation of approximately 30% of Pacific and over 90% of Atlantic salmon populations in the contiguous United States. Many of these remaining native populations of Atlantic salmon, steelhead, and Pacific salmon are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Significant population declines are also occurring on both coasts in southern Canada. This conservation crisis has resulted in extensive research on salmon to inform management decisions associated with recovery of these endangered populations.

There is a large and productive research effort in North America focused on conservation of endangered salmonid populations. Numerous partnerships are in place to facilitate collaborations among researchers within the Pacific and Atlantic salmon research communities. In contrast, opportunities for sharing information between these two communities are less structured and usually occur on a small scale.

We are organizing a symposium to bring together pairs of Pacific and Atlantic salmonid biologists to identify areas where collaboration between these research communities would be beneficial. Each member of the pair will give an oral presentation synthesizing major findings for a management or research topic from a Pacific or Atlantic salmon viewpoint. After the symposium is completed, each pair will co-author a manuscript to distill research from both viewpoints in an effort to identify new perspectives or techniques to enhance recovery of endangered salmon populations. Potential topics include: hatcheries, pelagic ecology, smoltification, fish passage, estuarine environments, ESA listing and recovery, dam removal, landlocked forms, reintroductions, genetics, freshwater ecology, life history variation, population dynamics, fisheries, contaminants, climate change, and aquaculture.