Increased variability in the abundance and productivity of Pacific salmon has been observed throughout the North Pacific in recent decades, primarily driven by climate change. For resource managers to make the best informed decisions, it is crucial that there is a solid understanding of the drivers of salmon mortality at each life history stage and how drivers in one life history stage affect survival in other stages. The Likely Suspects Framework (LSF) concept was developed in 2017 by a group of salmon researchers from the Atlantic and the Pacific basins and is a guiding process with the goal of providing practical advice to managers and decisionmakers by identifying the main sources of salmon mortality and their cumulative effects across the life cycle.

The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission and partners, as part of the International Year of the Salmon activities, developed and hosted the Salmonscape Workshop Series as phase one of the LSF implementation in the Northeast Pacific. The workshop series involved an initial Focus Group meeting, followed by three linked workshops, with the ultimate goal of developing a roadmap to guide the process for developing Case-Use Studies (specific salmon populations/watersheds) to test and further define the LSF for future implementation in the Northeast Pacific. The workshop series brought together over 100 participants representing a diverse range of roles and expertise, from federal and provincial/state agencies, Indigenous governments and communities, NGOs, and academic institutes.