CNN.com - Nature - Corps barging in on salmon recovery, say conservationists...

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CNN.com - Nature - Corps barging in on salmon recovery, say conservationists

'); else if (!(tst.indexOf("asia.cnn.com")==-1)) document.write('August 29, 2000 Web posted at: 18:38 HKT (1838 GMT) '); else document.write('August 29, 2000 Web posted at: 6:38 a.m. EDT (1038 GMT) '); By Environmental News Network staff Salmon and steelhead trout evolved to ride the natural wave of spring snowmelt each year from their freshwater birthing grounds to the ocean. Historically, the fish would be swept, tail first, down the Snake and Columbia rivers, for one to three weeks before they reached the Pacific Ocean. Today, the means of travel is different. Eighty-five percent of endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead smolts were artificially transported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the 2000 migration season, conservation groups report. According to data released this week by the Fish Passage Center in Portland, the proportion of juvenile salmon transported to barges and trucks this year was the highest ever recorded. "They are basically collecting every fish they can get their hands on," said Scott Bosse, a fisheries biologist at Idaho Rivers United."(The Corps) is using technological mechanisms to corral juvenile fish into pipes that eventually dump them into barges or trucks." Environmentalists have strongly argued for the removal of the four lower Snake River dams as the best way to recover endangered salmon and steelhead populations. If the dams are not removed, they say, the natural flow of the river will need to be restored.


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