Hydro dams an easy scapegoat in salmon recovery efforts (Opinion)
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seattle Times] By Terry Flores - November 13, 2014 -
(Terry Flores is Executive Director of Northwest River Partners, Portland, Oregon)
In “How to boost salmon populations” [Opinion, Nov. 6], the authors admit that ocean conditions were a factor in recent record returns. But they give most credit to spill — the practice of shooting water over hydropower dams to help speed fish to the ocean.
Yet young salmon spend less than a month in the hydropower system where spill affects them, versus three to four years in the ocean. They face death from commercial, sport and tribal harvest. Some never make it past the hungry sea lions, which devour up to 45 percent of the spring Chinook run, according to a recent NOAA Fisheries report.
Then why the myopic focus on spill? Anti-dam groups, which have been suing for nearly two decades, want...
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