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.
"That means spilling water over the dams from spring until fall, 24 hours a day, as opposed to using turbines," Bosse said.
Bosse notes that the biological opinion issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service required more water for moving salmon through the river system and a change in dam operations to increase the survival of the fish moving through the facilities.
A draft revision of the opinion, ordered by a federal court, softens that requirement.
"The report calls for more water flow on a voluntary basis," Bosse said. "It does not require any one that is involved to make sacrifices. The new plan relies on maximum fish barging. This is not the aggressive non-dam breaching plan NMFS said it was going to be. It's a passive, non-breaching plan."
Irrigators in Idaho and eastern Washington are opposed to increasing river flows for salmon recovery.
