Page 28 - aruba-today-20170311

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 11 March 2017

Truckloads of tiny fish hauled to river in restoration plan

GILLIAN FLACCUS struction of hydroelectric changing so they can sur-
Associated Press dams that impeded their vive in saltwater.
LOSTINE, Ore. (AP) — These progress upstream. They face a long and per-
speckled, rose-tinted fish The Nez Perce successfully ilous journey. The baby
haven’t been spotted in reintroduced coho salmon salmon must pass through
this bubbling river in remote into the Clearwater River in several rivers before reach-
northeastern Oregon for Idaho in the mid-1990s. The ing the giant Columbia
more than 30 years — until program was so success- River and swimming into
now. ful that Idaho permitted the ocean. Along the way,
But this week, the waters of tribal and non-tribal fishing they must navigate hungry
the Lostine River suddenly of coho during one sea- birds and sea lions, anglers
came alive as hundreds son a few years ago, said and the hydraulic dams
of the 4- and 5-inch-long Michael Bisbee Jr., coho that power much of the Pa-
juvenile coho salmon shot project leader for the Nez cific Northwest and break
from a long white hose at- Perce. The tribe hopes to up the highway of water
tached to a water tanker repeat the Idaho project’s they rely upon.
truck and into the frigid cur- In this Wednesday, March 8, 2017 photo, juvenile coho salmon success in Oregon. By the time the bulk of them
rent. The fish jumped and flop down a chute and into a water tanker truck at the Cascade “If we could get at least return in two years, the tiny
Fish Hatchery in Cascade Locks, Ore.
splashed and some, mo- Associated Press 800 total adults back from fish will be more than 2 feet
mentarily shell-shocked, hid this release in a couple long and weigh up to 10
along the bank as onlook- end of one journey and the to the Pacific Ocean over years here, that would be pounds.
ers crowded in for photos. beginning of another — an the next month and then outstanding,” Bisbee said “We’ll be lucky if half of the
“All of us are speaking from attempt to restore a lost swim home after a year or Thursday, as he awaited fish we release even get
the heart and our gladness species to a tribe and to a two in the Pacific Ocean the salmons’ arrival. “I’m to the ocean, and in the
for these fish coming back region. feeding and growing. super excited. The tribe’s ocean only 2 or 3 percent
into this river, bringing some- The fish, raised by state Biologists expect to see the been working on getting will survive,” said Becky
thing that has vanished, wildlife officials in a hatch- first fish returning to this re- coho back here into Or- Johnson, division direc-
but has come back,” Nez ery outside Portland, were mote corner of the state egon for a long time and tor for hatchery programs
Perce tribal elder Charles trucked 300 miles inland next fall, but the bulk will we’re minutes away from with the Nez Perce tribe.
Axtell said. “We take care in nine water tanker trucks come back in 2019. making history.” “We would be really happy
of each other and that’s equipped with highly sensi- Coho salmon once num- As the fish waited in the to get 1 percent of those
what we are doing — tak- tive oxygen and tempera- bered 20,000 here each truck under a steady rain, 500,000 fish back. It would
ing care of this fish. We are ture sensors and a bub- year and were part of a rich tribal leader Axtell wel- be even good if we got
the circle of life.” bling system that mimics a tribal tradition for the Nez comed them with a bless- half a percent back.”
The cohos’ baptism in this river’s current. Now in the Perce. The tribe was driven ing and a traditional trav- Even such small numbers
far-flung river marks the Lostine River, they must turn from this part of Oregon by eling song. He then rang a would be enough to start
around and swim 600 miles the U.S. government more bell three times, turned in a renewed connection for
CALL FOR OUR LIVE GIRLS SHOW than a century ago, but its a circle and watched with the Nez Perce with their
members consider the spe- emotion as state wildlife own lost home, said Axtell.
cies critical to their history workers poured the young Multiple attempts to reintro-
and have fought for years fish into the current. duce coho salmon to the
to bring back the reddish, The juvenile fish are being basin over the past century
hook-nosed fish. released at a critical point have failed.
Numbers of coho declined in their life cycle when they But fish biologists, backed
throughout the 20th centu- learn to recognize their with lessons learned and
ry due to pollution, human home region before leav- the latest hatchery tech-
impacts on their habitat, ing for the Pacific Ocean. niques, believe this time will
overfishing and the con- Their bodies also are be different.q