Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 5 sepTember 2017

After generations, salmon back in Lake Champlain tributaries

By WILSON RING To make that happen, the
Associated Press state and federal govern-
HUNTINGTON, Vt. (AP) — For ment have been working
the first time in about 150 to carry returning salmon
years, landlocked Atlan- above three Winooski River
tic salmon are once again dams to make it possible for
swimming up some Lake them to reach their spawn-
Champlain tributaries in ing grounds. Two years
Vermont and New York to ago, a dam was removed
spawn in gravel banks, bi- from New York’s Boquet
ologists say. It hasn’t come River, but biologists are still
easy, and the process will helping the fish upstream.
require continued human This fall’s run is expected
intervention to make sure to begin later this month.
the salmon that hatch in There is still a long way to
Vermont’s Winooski River go. In Vermont, biologists
or New York’s Boquet River stock about 30,000 young
can make it to the lake and fish each year.
then return when it’s their In this Aug. 29, 2017 photo state and federal fisheries experts look for landlocked Atlantic salmon Over the past several
time to reproduce. in the Huntington River in Huntington, Vt. years, the biologists have
Biologists call it a success Associated Press watched returning fish in-
story produced by a better naturally, and the juveniles that populated the area redds, areas where the fish crease from between 10
understanding of the salm- surviving, that is starting to via 19th-century canals. used their tails to dig holes and 20 a year to between
on, reduction in the num- show that we are making A long-term sea lamprey in the gravel where eggs 100 and 200.
bers of parasitic sea lam- progress in restoring that control program began in were laid, in the Hunting- Biologists consider that a
prey in Lake Champlain, aquatic ecosystem,” he 2002, and now sections of ton River near Richmond. good number and they
improved water conditions said. The biologists have the lake are treated every In spring 2016, the biologists expect it to increase. Last
in the tributaries, and help worked with their counter- fall to kill them.“Initially we discovered young salmon week, Staats and four fish
the fish got to navigate parts in the Pacific North- had no fish coming back that came from eggs laid experts from the Vermont
around dams responsible west to better understand to our rivers, but now that in autumn 2015. Now broad Department of Fish and
for loss of the original salm- the fish. The salmon resto- the wounding rates are sections of the Winooski Wildlife spent the morning
on in the 1800s. ration program for Lake lower, we have more fish River, just downstream from on the Huntington catch-
“Salmon are a great indi- Champlain began in the out there surviving; the the Huntington, are ideal ing some of the salmon
cator species for looking 1970s when the U.S. Fish numbers of salmon return- salmon spawning grounds. that were stocked last year.
at how well we are doing,” and Wildlife Service and ing to our streams and riv- Ardren, Staats and others The fish, caught with an
said Bill Ardren, a senior fish the wildlife agencies from ers along the lake have hope more salmon, aver- electrofishing system, were
biologist with the U.S. Fish Vermont and New York increased dramatically,” aging 22 inches (56 centi- released after they were
and Wildlife Service who started stocking salmon said Nicholas Staats, a fed- meters) long and weigh- measured. “This year we
works on the Lake Champ- and lake trout. In the early eral fish biologist. ing up to 13 pounds (5.9 found 16 salmon in this
lain salmon restoration pro- years, the program was In autumn 2014, for the first kilograms) and will return stretch of the river from last
gram. “So when you start hampered by the presence time in about 150 years, bi- there at the end of Octo- fall’s stocking, which is pret-
to see salmon reproducing of invasive sea lamprey ologists discovered salmon ber to continue the cycle. ty good,” Staats said.q

World’s biggest X-ray goes

into operation in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Scientists in luminance a billion times chemical reactions and
Germany say the world’s higher than the best con- study processes occurring
largest X-ray laser is now ventional X-ray sources. deep inside planets.”
in operation and will help Scientists hope the Europe- Institutions from Germany,
them capture images of an XFEL project will open France, Italy, Poland, Rus-
structures and processes up new areas of research. sia, Spain, Sweden, Swit-
at an atomic level. DESY says it will enable re- zerland and other coun-
The DESY research center searchers “to decipher the tries are involved in the
near Hamburg said the molecular composition project.
In this Feb. 28, 2017 file photo a technician works at the tunnel laser that went online Fri- of viruses and cells, take Researchers are preparing
of an X-ray laser at the European XFEL project in Schenefeld, day flashes 27,000 pulses three-dimensional imag- their first experiments for
Germany.
Associated Press per second, resulting in a es of the nanoworld, film mid-September.q