The Pacific Northwest is home to one of the world’s last greatest treasures: wild salmon. But for the 2019 salmon run, only 628,000 sockeye salmon are expected to return to the Fraser River in Vancouver. Original estimates were set at nearly five million.

Last week I decided to walk down to the beach to eat my lunch. I found a nice log to sit on from which to admire birds harvesting the tidal zone, layers of majestic mountains, the smell of saltwater, and to think about how fortunate I am to have such opportunity. Then I looked down. At my feet, literally, were eight cigarette butts. With a sigh I decided to count how many cigarette butts I could see without leaving my log perch.