SALMON RECOVERY and DAMS Pt 3
I'm Bob Larson. Incompetence is the reason that salmon migration on the Snake and Columbia rivers has been down.
The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association's Darryll Olsen says fish managers ignored recommendations from NOAA scientists in 2015 who told them to start the juvenile fish transportation program early to get the salmon out of the warming river and to the Pacific safely ...
OLSEN ... "The juvenile fish program, largely as a result of all the attention that we brought on it, bounced back again in 2016-2017. They started to bring it back to the levels that were in the original biological opinion. But, then the court stepped in with the spill program injunction on the river and so 2018 operations have got maximum spill at projects which means you're not able to collect the fish and we are anticipating the numbers on juvenile transport will be at an all-time low again for 2018."
Olsen says the dam breaching groups probably aren't even aware of the fish transport system ...
OLSEN ... "If they are aware, they don't care and it's just the dam breaching issue, but if there's serious concern about protecting the juvenile migration, Snake River migration-Columbia migration, and boosting fish runs in the ocean the last thing you would want to do is disrupt the juvenile fish transport program."
Olsen says if these groups were serious about saving salmon, they'd insist on maximizing the juvenile transportation system because the rivers will warm with or without the dams.
