Barges Aim to Keep Salmon Going

C A S C A D E   L O C K S,   Ore.,   June 28, 2001 -- Gray clouds hug the Cascade Mountains along the Columbia River as a barge called the Chinook chugs into the Bonneville Dam lock with its cargo — 200,000 live salmon.

For more than two decades, the federal government has been shipping young fish downstream past eight federal dams, hoping the fish will swim back upstream on their own to spawn. So far the fish are losing the battle.

Only about 1 percent of the salmon on this barge were expected to make it back to spawn.

Fifteen types of salmon in the Columbia Basin have been put on the threatened or endangered species list since 1991.

Needed, or Making Things Worse

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ salmon barging program is either a vital crutch for the fish or a sure path to their greater doom, depending on one’s perspective.

“Barging just doesn’t work,” said Justin Hayes of the environmental group American Rivers. “As long as they keep flushing money and fish into the barge system, they’re going to fail.”

But Bruce Lovelin of the Columbia River Alliance, an industry group, said barging has “kept the salmon on life support. ... We’d define it as the best that the corps has going right now.”

On the deck of the Chinook, there is no political debate, just a stiff wind from the West.

Ruthanne Watkinson is all business. Her crewmates sometimes call her “the fish lady.”

Overseeing the Lifeline

For nearly two straight months, it is her job to ride the barge up and down the Columbia, making sure that young salmon captured behind the dams are loaded safely aboard, and then safely let loose at the end of their journey.

During the night, she emerges every two hours from a makeshift trailer on the Chinook’s deck where she sleeps and makes sure the fish are OK in their six 150,000-gallon tanks.

“The longer I’ve been in this boat, I’m wondering if there is a glamorous part of this job,” said Watkinson, a 22-year-old wildlife management graduate from New York state. Still, she feels the job is important, saying, “I’m their lifeline.”

An hour downstream from the Bonneville lock, the crew opens portals in the bottom of the tanks.

End of the Route

With a giant whooshing sound, the 4-inch to 6-inch baby salmon are flushed into the river, where they begin their journey out to sea.

The corps will spend about $3.4 million this year to ship more than 20 million salmon down the river.

The fish barging helps ensure the both the fish and the dams survive.

The dams can still provide flood control, irrigation and especially hydropower and the fish bypass them en route to the sea. Electricity from the dams powers huge companies like Boeing and Intel and helps keep residents’ power bills among the cheapest in the nation.

Are They the Ones Returning?

Barging program backers point to studies showing that two of every three adult salmon that survive the inland migration through the eight dams were barged fish.

But environmentalists cite another study showing that just a quarter of 1 percent of barged fish make it back upstream to spawn.

That means that of the 20 million salmon the corps will ship downstream this year, only 50,000 will return to spawn.

“If we keep going at this rate, the fish will go extinct,” said Jim Baker of the Sierra Club.

But even the healthiest salmon runs have only a 3 percent to 7 percent return rate for spawning salmon.

The debate is heating up.

The corps this fall will complete a draft of a study examining whether to remove a portion of four of the eight dams — the ones on the Snake River. The move, intensely sought by environmentalists, would boost salmon survival, but would render the dams useless.

The study is also looking at other options to help the fish, including a continuation or an increase in barging.

Congress will ultimately decide. In the near term, lawmakers show no desire to cut back or cancel the barging program.