At present there are several ideas and proponents advocating for the protection of salmon populations. But all of us on both sides of this issue must exercise caution when considering the proposed options. None of the ideas that are in motion guarantee a recovery of the salmon.
All of the hydroelectric dams have salmon accommodations engineered into their designs. These features have served the ecosystem well but the salmon population is continuing to decline. Who, what, why and where is causing this continuance?
One of the contributing factors that has not been discussed or included in this dialogue is the recreational and commercial fishing of the salmon. The commercial industry harvested 4.3 million tons of salmon in 2019. With the incorporation of newer technologies and processing this number will continue to increase, hindering salmon recovery. Additional to this activity is the damage that is done to other species and the environment they survive in. Thus, breaching damns will be accomplished in futility.
It may be more beneficial to establish a 10-year moratorium on all salmon fishing immediately. This will remove one of the largest stressors on the salmon ecosystem and provide the quickest results and be a lot less expensive.
Take caution when considering the proposed options for our electrical energy supply. These options must be established on a much larger cost and scale to replace the efficiency of hydroelectric producers. The new green energy is heavily subsidized by the government and when those subsidies go away the cost of our electricity will increase. A heavy price to pay for something that may not produce the urgent results that we are looking for.
Brian Redford
Arlington
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