Word: salmons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last fall the Snake River sockeye was added to the nation's endangered- species list, and this spring the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to take similar action on behalf of most races of Chinook. These actions pave the way for an extensive salmon-recovery plan to be put forth by the fisheries service in September that will affect not only commercial and sport fishing throughout a four-state area but also mining, farming and other industries that depend on the river and the power it generates. "There is no better barometer of the health of the Northwest than...
Before the roaring Columbia River began to be tamed by dams 59 years ago, it teemed with 16 million wild salmon a year as it cut a 1,930-km (1,200-mile) swath from its headwaters in British Columbia to its mouth at Astoria, Ore. Today its streams and tributaries are inhabited by only 2.5 million salmon a year, nearly 75% of which are spawned in domestic hatcheries. Logging and grazing on public lands have eroded soils and buried spawning grounds. Delicate habitats have been dried up by the pumping of hundreds of millions of acre-feet of water...
...most ferocious enemy of the fish is eight hydroelectric dams on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers that harness water behind massive walls of concrete. On their journey upstream every year, the salmon are aided by fish ladders that allow them to bypass oncoming currents. But the trip downstream from the spawning grounds to the Pacific is a treacherous 1,450-km (900-mile) journey that obliterates up to 11 million juvenile salmon, called smolts, a year. Slack pools created by reservoirs behind the dams have slowed the smolts' traveling time from seven days to six weeks. This increases their...
Saving the salmon will require a far-reaching plan to restore habitat, reduce the number of commercial fish harvests and limit the number of hatchery salmon released in the river. But the crucial element will be changing operations at the dams to increase the velocity of the waters so that young fish are quickly flushed seaward. Biologists say this can be achieved by releasing vast amounts of water from upstream reservoirs or by lowering water levels in the pools behind the dams during the spring migration...
While the Endangered Species Act has given a sense of urgency to the salmon's plight, a number of efforts have already been made to increase the runs. In 1980, Congress passed the Northwest Power Act, which required federal power authorities, who oversee the dams, to give salmon protection equal priority with electricity production. The act also created the four-state Northwest Power Planning Council, which aimed to double the number of salmon to 5 million to make up for those lost in the dams. To meet this goal, the council established fish hatcheries and installed screening devices at many...