Kramer, ole’ buddy, what kinda’ drugs you on, man? I’d love to take whatever it is that causes the rose colored glasses you seem to be seein’ through. You’re right, all the dams have fish ladders for upstream migration by adult fish. But the ladders are a small problem; no one’s saying the ladders are the problem. But what about downstream passage by juvenile fish? All the dams have some kind of bypass system for smolts, that’s true. But some work fairly well, and some don’t work very well at all. 95% live passage though some turbines might be realized, but that doesn’t determine the outcome for fish. What is the overall fish passage survival from Asotin on the Snake River to Astoria on the Columbia? Now, you know that isn’t anywhere near 95%, nor is it anywhere near as high as the survival rate, even with natural predation, that smolts would experience if there were no dam induced mortality.

Fish friendly turbines? I’ve heard of it. Exactly how many, or what percent of all Snake/Columbia turbine installations consist of this improved variety? Truly I ask because I haven’t heard of any non-experimental, fully installed and operational turbines that don’t do the slice and dice operation on smolts.

And record runs? As referenced in other posts, what history revision are you alluding to? At best, you seem to be using short term memory here. Again, to repeat other respondents, the improved returns this year are more the result of high spring runoff (and subsequent spill that allowed smolts to avoid turbines) during the seasons these fish migrated to the ocean, and the resultant improved ocean survival conditions they encountered once there. I don’t know of one way in which the damns contributed to the improved returns observed this year.

If they clubbed a bunch of salmon at Entiat hatchery, that tells me they had surplus hatchery salmon this year. How many wild spring chinook populations met their escapement goals this year? None, I believe, is the correct answer.

We are in agreement that it is wrong to lay blanket blame on dams as the sole cause of salmon decline. Most folks know there are numerous causes, non of which wear any white hats. But most of us are also aware that except for ocean survival, dams are the leading cause of fish mortality on the Snake and Columbia River systems, causing more fish mortality than all other human induced mortality combined. And ocean survival and mortality are natural conditions that we cannot control. Damn induced mortality is a form of human induced mortality that is under our direct ability to control. Net fishing mortality is also a form of human induced mortality. But diligent observers already know that nets harvest a small fraction of the Snake/Columbia fish compared to the proportion harvested by the damns. So please explain again how the dams are doing more to save the salmon than the nets. You kind of lost me on that one.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.