Fish, Eels, Salmon Rush Back To Penobscot River With Removal Of 19th Century Dams - NYT

[hatrack]

EDIT

Three enormous dams erected in the Penobscot, starting in the 1830s, changed all that, preventing migratory fish from reaching their breeding grounds. The populations all but collapsed. But two of the dams were razed in 2012 and 2013, and since then, fish have been rushing back into the Penobscot, Maine’s largest river.

“Now all of a sudden you are pulling the cork plug and giving shad access to a truckload of good habitat,” Dr. Zydlewski said. Nearly 8,000 shad have swum upstream this year — and it’s not just shad.

More than 500 Atlantic salmon have made the trip, along with nearly two million alewives, countless baby eels, thousands of mature sea lamprey and dozens of white perch and brook trout. Striped bass are feeding a dozen miles above Bangor in waters closed to them for more than a century.

Nationwide, dam removals are gaining traction. Four dams are slated for removal from the Klamath River alone in California and Oregon by 2020. Just a few of these removals have occurred on such large rivers, which play an outsize role in coastal ecosystems. But the lessons are the same everywhere: Unplug the rivers, and the fish will return.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/science/penobscot-river-maine-dam-removal-fish.html?_r=0

[DirkGently]

1. Excellent. n/t

[DFW]

2. Nature always rejoices when allowed to return to her natural state.

Too bad this can't happen in about a thousand more places.

[DK504]

4. Well said.

[spike jones]

3. Elwah River

Elwha River in Washington State damn removed in 2011.

http://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/elwha/

[ffr]

5. This is stupid. Where's the profit in this???

Says the conservative RW voter.

Thus, a clear example of why democrats, liberals, progressives, conservationists... Vote so we can restore our biodiversity.

[IronLionZion]

7. liberals can feel conflicted about dams

since we want clean energy, but we also like wildlife.

It's good that we have more clean energy options besides dams now.

[ffr]

8. I'm conflicted, but I now know that we cannot just think of ourselves anymore

not if we want to survive on this planet. The more I understand, the more I see how humans are adversely affecting the world we depend upon.

[XemaSab]

10. Actually, from the article:

In anticipation of the dam removals, state biologists in 2010 began stocking lakes in the Penobscot watershed with the herring; fish that swam up the Penobscot this year are their progeny.

This strategy proved effective on the neighboring Kennebec River, where the Edwards Dam was removed in 1999. There, river herring now return by the millions and support a commercial fishery.

There IS a profit in it!

[madokie]

12. Vote like our future depends on it

I've got a 9 year old grand Daughter I'm voting to protect. As well as our whole Planet

I wish I could single out the 'CONs though and vote to get rid of them

[emmadoggy]

6. This gives me good feels.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Such unexpected good news. Thank you. n/t

[spike jones]

11. Scientists call for breaching dams to save Puget Sound orcas.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article111136932.html

BY PHUONG LE
Associated Press

SEATTLE
Researchers who track the endangered population of orcas that frequent Washington state waters said Friday that three whales are missing or believed dead since summer. The most recent death of a 23-year-old female known as J28 and likely her 10-month-old calf drops the current population to 80, among the lowest in decades, according to the Center for Whale Research on Friday Harbor, which keeps the whale census for the federal government.
A 42-year-old female whale was reported missing during the center's July 1 census. Center senior scientist Ken Balcomb said orcas, particularly mothers and their babies, are struggling because they don't have enough food, a primary factor in the population's decline. He and others called for four dams on the Lower Snake River to be breached to open up habitat for salmon. They said the best opportunity to save the orcas is to restore runs of salmon eaten by the killer whales.

"We know what we need to do, feed them," Balcomb said at a news conference on the Seattle waterfront surrounded by supporters who held signs calling for the dams to come down.

Those opposed to removing the Lower Snake dams say they provide low-cost hydroelectric power and play a major role in the region's economy. J28 was believed to have died in the Strait of Juan de Fuca sometime last week, leaving behind a 10-month old whale that won't likely survive without her, Balcomb said. The mother appeared emaciated in recent weeks, he said. The number of southern resident killer whales has fluctuated in recent decades, from more than 100 in 1995 to about 80 in recent years, as they have faced threats from pollution, lack of prey and disturbance from boats. They were listed as endangered in 2005. The whales have a strong preference for chinook salmon, which are typically larger and fatter fish, but those runs have been declining. "There's no reason these dams couldn't be breached," said Jim Waddell, a retired engineer with the group DamSense who spoke at the news conference.

In May, in a long-running lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon in Portland rejected the federal government's latest plan for offsetting the damage that dams in the Columbia River Basin pose to salmon. The judge ordered the government to come up with a new plan by March 2018. He said he would not dictate what options the government must consider in the new plan, but he noted that a proper analysis under federal law "may well require consideration of the reasonable alternative of breaching, bypassing, or removing one or more of the four Lower Snake River Dams."

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article111136932.html#storylink=cpy