Victoria climate activist joins 1,375 km swim to save Fraser River

Victoria climate activist joins 1,375 km swim to save Fraser River

Published 5:00 pm Sunday, August 23, 2026

A Victoria-based climate activist is swimming against the icy cold and powerful waters of the Fraser River in a 1,375-kilometre relay swim.

Naomi Devine is an advocate and campaign manager for the Fraser River Challenge, swimming with marine ecologist Dr. Isabelle Côté and forest disturbance ecologist Michelle Connolly.

The expedition started Aug. 6 and will end by Sep. 4 across the Rivershed, with businesses, non-profits, and unions journeying down the river by canoe and raft, alongside swimmers, walkers, paddlers and supporters across the province.

The three swimmers are expected to spend the next month swimming 1,375 kilometres down the Fraser River, starting at the Rocky Mountain headwaters, and to finish at Garry Point Park in Steveston, on the Salish Sea.

“It will be cold. It will be difficult. It will be beautiful. And it will carry a clear purpose: to help build public support for protecting 30 per cent of the Fraser Rivershed by 2030,” Devine said in an Instagram post.

She further said that the swim will be more than an endurance challenge and will be an adventure of a lifetime in service of the Fraser River.

“Its future matters to all of us.”

Over the years, Devine’s work in Victoria has spanned environmental advocacy, public engagement, political campaigns, and strategic communications.

She has helped lead major public campaigns at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, including winning campaigns for Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock and MP Will Greaves.

Now she is joining the conservation of the Fraser River, widely considered the heart of B.C.’s freshwater and ecological system.

It functions as one of the world’s prime wild salmon river systems, supporting all native Pacific salmon species.

In a five-year campaign, Fraser Riverkeeper expects to protect 30 per cent of the Fraser Rivershed by 2030, safeguarding it before it is irreversibly altered.

The project is conducted in formal partnership with the Indigenous Stewardship Fund, the charitable entity of the First Nations Fisheries Council of BC.

The 2026 expedition is the campaign’s most visible act of advocacy.

Donations to the swim team and the solo marathon walker Justin Smith can be made online.

The public can contribute to the efforts by signing the Fraser River Salmon Declaration.