KUOW - Smaller fish tags to help sockeye studies above Grand Coulee Dam kuow.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kuow.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
KUOW - Smaller fish tags to help sockeye studies above Grand Coulee Dam kuow.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kuow.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tracking some young salmon has always had one hitch: the tiny fish are too small for the injectable tags researchers use to track fish as they move past
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
The first time salmon were released above Chief Joseph and, later, Grand Coulee dams, Hemene James watched elders from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Many weren’t even old enough to remember when salmon last swam in those waters.
In their faces he saw pure emotion, as salmon slipped into the waters where they hadn’t been since Grand Coulee Dam blocked their path in 1942.
Then, he looked at the children. Their excitement was infectious. They jumped and ran into the water, trying to catch the fish swimming upstream.
“It was a little, tiny glimpse of what our world used to be like in the days that the fish were here. So it was very moving and very encouraging,” James says. “This work gets monotonous at times and you feel like you re spinning your wheels. But that was that glimmer of hope from the old ones that you guys are on the right path. Keep moving.”