Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 20 noveMber 2017

Experts: Idaho hatchery built to save salmon is killing them

By KEITH RIDLER began to decline in the soft water.
Associated Press early 1900s due to over- Young fish headed for the
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A fishing, irrigation diversions, ocean transition from living
relatively new $13.5 mil- dams and poisoning, tee- in fresh water to salt water.
lion hatchery intended to tering on the brink of ex- Biologists say the additional
save Snake River sockeye tinction in the early 1990s. stress of trying to also ad-
salmon from extinction is The fish have been the fo- just from hard water to soft
instead killing thousands of cus of an intense recovery water could be killing the
fish before they ever get to program centered at Fish salmon.
the ocean, and fisheries bi- and Game’s Eagle Fish Idaho officials say they plan
ologists in Idaho think they Hatchery in southwestern on trying various solutions,
know why. Idaho after being listed as including releasing fish di-
The Department of Fish and endangered under the En- rectly into Redfish Lake
Game in information re- dangered Species Act in in the fall as pre-smolts,
leased this week says water 1991. raising more sockeye at
chemistry at the Springfield The Springfield hatchery the Sawtooth Hatchery in
Hatchery in eastern Idaho was completed in 2013. central Idaho, and gradu-
is so different from that Salmon eggs from the Ea- ally softening water as fish
in the central region that gle hatchery and the feder- are transported from the
the young fish can’t ad- ally operated Burley Creek Springfield Hatchery in
just when released into the Hatchery in Washington trucks to central Idaho.
wild. state are transported to The Bonneville Power Ad-
“It’s not a disaster, it’s part Springfield where they are ministration paid for the
of what you experience raised until they are ready Springfield Hatchery as part
when you open a new for release as young fish, of federally required miti-
hatchery,” Paul Kline, Fish called smolts, into the Salm- gation to replace fish killed
and Game’s assistant fish- on River. by hydroelectric projects
eries chief, said in a post on The goal has been to re- that provide power to the
the agency’s website. lease 1 million smolts with region.
Idaho Rivers United, an en- the hope that up to 5,000 “We are confident that
vironmental group, blasted of them could survive the this hatchery is still viable
the report as more reason ocean odyssey to return and that our partners will
for removing four dams on annually as adults to Red- find a solution,” said David
the lower Snake River that fish Lake. This year, 162 Wilson, spokesman for the
impede salmon. adults returned, none from agency.q
“Until we address main- the Springfield Hatchery.
stem survival we’re missing Fish and Game officials say
the biggest opportunity for smolts from the hatchery
these amazing fish,” Kevin released in central Idaho
Lewis, the group’s execu- are not surviving.
tive director, said in a state- In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, file photo provided by Idaho Fish The main theory, officials
ment. and Game, Snake River sockeye salmon that returned from the say, is that water at the
Sockeye salmon are a Pacific Ocean to Idaho over the summer swim in a holding tank Springfield Hatchery has a
prized sport fish and the at the Eagle Fish Hatchery in southwestern Idaho. high amount of dissolved
Idaho run is culturally im- Associated Press minerals, called hard wa-
portant to the Shoshone- turned annually to central dant red-colored salmon ter, while the water at Red-
Bannock Tribes. An esti- Idaho, and Redfish Lake that spawned there. fish Lake and the Salmon
mated 150,000 sockeye re- was named for the abun- Federal officials say the run River does not, making it