Saving the Last of the Chinook Salmon

Save the Last of the Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon is one of the hardiest fish around, “living 3-7 years, growing three feet to five feet weighing in at 30-110 pounds” says The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The Chinook salmon is a vital part of the ecosystem it inhabits, it serves as a food source to bears, seals, orcas and many other animals. The salmon are commonly found in Alaska, Oregon Idaho, Washington and Northern California. The Chinook salmon in the Snake River are threatened to the brink of extinction due to excruciating temperatures in the river streams. Temperatures have been in the high sixties, which is too warm for salmon to thrive. Dams located on the lower Snake River need to be removed to grant the fish access to higher elevation and cooler waters.
Chinook salmon juveniles swimming to the ocean have decreased substantially. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that over “4 million juveniles swam to sea in 2009 and only 500,000 in 2014.” This resulted in a” 22% decrease in salmon just from last year”. The shortage of salmon also puts Orca whales at harm because mother orcas have been dying off because of the shortage of salmon. NOAA says, “It takes 600,000 salmon to feed the southern orcas each year.” Orcas feed off the mouth of the Columbia River where the Chinook salmon come to begin their migration.
The salmon are born in freshwater rivers and swim to the ocean, transitioning into adulthood. Later, the mature salmon migrate back to its original birthplace to breed and die. The leftover carcass of the fish serves as food to bears, bald eagles, and other wildlife. The fish are suitable in cold waters ranging from 40-58 degrees Fahrenheit, but in recent times the water has exceeded 58 degrees, which is lethal to the salmon. The government listed the Chinook salmon on the endangered species list and since then more species of salmon, such as the Sockeye, have been listed as endangered or close to extinction.
“The Endangered Species Act of the 1990’s has done very little to help conserve the population of the Chinook salmon” says Amy Baird of SaveOurSalmon.org. Acts of raising hatchery fish and transporting the salmon to cooler rivers, such as the Mc Cloud, have been done for years. Still these endeavors are not effectively raising the population of the fish, only prolonging their existence. While this is a temporary solution, a bold, more successful answer would be to remove dams on the Snake River.
Removing dams on the Snake River would grant the fish a thriving environment with thousands of miles to swim. Higher elevation habitats will provide the salmon the escape from the heated waters. Writer Steve Hawley from Hood River, Oregon says removing the dams would grant the salmon “5,500 miles of heat resistant high- elevation bearing streams.” NOAA’s 2000 Biological Opinion concluded that removing the dams is the best solution for long term salmon recovery and survival for the fish. The Chinook salmon juveniles that returned to the river in recent years has been “80% hatchery fish, not wild salmon” said Baird. Currently the, Little Goose, Monumental, Ice Harbor, and Granite dams stand in the way to the frigid waters the salmon require to thrive.
The dams do not contribute much power to the cities for electricity. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council estimates “Only one third of their potential power is being used.” The generation capacity of the dams is 3,033 megawatts but the average annual amount used is 1,075 megawatts. The dams are “run off the river” dams which have low storage capacity and generate most of their power in the spring when the energy is least needed. With the shortage of salmon and salmon protection laws in place, “25,000 jobs in the fishing industry have been lost in the Snake River area”, says Braid. The continuation of this current plan of transporting fish, and raising hatchery fish, will only lead to more money spent along with a steady decline in jobs.
Removal of the Columbia River dams would dramatically increase the amount of Chinook salmon in the region and is likely the best solution to the problem. $10 billion has been spent on the salmon recovery plan and is expected to increase by another $1 billion annually. According to a RAND Corps. Study, “$1.6-4.6 billion could be saved if the dams are removed and could cause a significant increase in jobs.” Saving the Chinook salmon is a mandatory effort, the removal of the four dams would save billions of dollars and stimulate economic prosperity to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, along with more long term jobs in the fishing industry.