B3
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
Salmon: ‘The fi sh ladders aren’t enough’
Continued from Page B2
“You place the entry
where the fi sh want to be,”
Bryan said.
Scanning fi sh
Another big advantage
of the portal, Bryan said,
is it can scan fi sh and iden-
tify which ones should be
transported over the dams.
That can help to keep out
non-native species, such as
shad, he said.
The lower Snake River
is about as far inland as
shad swim, according
to the Northwest Power
and Conservation Coun-
cil, an advisory group that
develops a regional power
plan and fi sh and wild-
life program. Most of the
annual run spawns down-
stream of McNary Dam on
the Columbia River. The
Columbia River now has
the largest known popula-
tion of shad in the world,
according to the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey. The shad
could increase competition
for space and cause migra-
tory delays. More study is
needed, according to the
Geological Survey.
On the Snake River,
Army Corps of Engineers
fi sh biologists said shad can
cause problems, most often
after they spawn and die.
The dead fi sh can clog areas
near fi sh ladders, although
biologists said they don’t
aff ect salmon passage in the
ladders.
Bryan said the Passage
Portal system could sort
shad without people han-
dling the fi sh. The system
takes 18 photos of each fi sh
less than a second after it
has swum into the system.
The pictures determine the
species of fi sh, whether it’s
injured or if it’s a hatchery
or wild fi sh.
All of that data can help
track the success of the sys-
tem, Bryan said.
Fish that managers want
to continue on then swim
Whooshh Innovations
A demonstration project at Chief Joseph Dam moved salmon over the dam. The dam has blocked the area to fi sh since it was built in the 1950s.
into the tubes without real-
izing they’ve left the river,
Bryan said.
“Once the fi sh enters our
system, they’re going to be
delivered to the top of the
dam and into the water in
seconds,” Bryan said.
This could make salmon
feel like they have a more
natural swim upriver to
spawn, Bryan said.
Helping fi sh now
This proposal isn’t
meant to replace discus-
sion on whether to remove
or alter the four contro-
versial dams on the lower
Snake, he said. It’s more
of a Band-Aid to help fi sh
now, he said, while other
plans are considered.
Those
discussions,
Bryan said, could take years
to start to help salmon. A
comprehensive $33.5 bil-
lion proposal by U.S. Rep.
SUNDAY
Mike Simpson, an Idaho
Republican, to remove the
Snake River dams could
take 10 years.
“What can we do in
those 10 years to make sure
that there’s any fi sh left?”
Bryan said.
Bryan estimated his
company’s device could
cost $67 million.
Bryan said the tech-
nology has been proven.
Last year, the Passage Por-
tal system helped salmon
navigate giant boulders
in a remote part of British
Columbia.
A massive landslide had
blocked the Fraser River,
with enough debris to fi ll
45 Olympic-size swimming
pools, and prevented fi sh
passage upstream.
To help fi x the prob-
lem, according to Cana-
da’s Fisheries and Oceans
department, it awarded the
Whooshh Passage Portal
system a $4.45 million con-
tract. The system moved
about 8,200 salmon past the
landslide.
“The technology worked
well at moving fi sh effi -
ciently past the barrier
without handling, therefore
reducing stress to fi sh,”
said spokesperson Kavitha
Palanisamy. “However, due
to the very remote loca-
tion; challenging weather
conditions, including high
water levels that disrupted
operations; and construc-
tion diffi culties, fi sh were
not moved as far above the
slide site as intended.”
Other
emergency
transportation
measures
included a concrete fi sh
ladder, a fi sh wheel to cap-
ture salmon and a truck and
transport system. In total,
more than 161,000 salmon
made it beyond the debris.
AFTERNOON
Columbia United Tribes
are studying salmon rein-
troduction to the upper
Columbia River. The tribes
have said one solution
could be a Whooshh sys-
tem. Other options could
include trucking salmon
around Chief Joseph and
Grand Coulee dams.
While the lower Snake
River fi sh ladders have
helped fi sh move upstream,
more needs to be done,
Bryan said, especially as
the climate warms waters
and decreases water fl ows,
making it harder on salmon
to reach their spawning
grounds.
“The fi sh ladders aren’t
enough,” Bryan said. “At
least when you have multi-
ple dams in a row.”
Bryan said Whooshh
Innovations could get a
system up and running on
the Snake River by 2023.
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The Fraser River proj-
ect was smaller in scale
than what the company has
proposed for all the Snake
River dams, Bryan said.
But, he said, it was tech-
nically more complicated
because of the remote loca-
tion of the landslide and
emergency situation.
“Compared to what we
did on the Fraser River,
every project we look at
now seems so straightfor-
ward,” Bryan said.
For example, in 2019
the Confederated Tribes of
the Colville Reservation,
with other state and federal
agencies, demonstrated the
same portal system at Chief
Joseph Dam on the Colum-
bia River. Fish haven’t
been able to make it around
the dam since it was built in
the 1950s.
To bring salmon back to
the blocked area, the Upper
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