Canada: workers race to free millions of salmon trapped after huge landslide
Rockslide on banks of Fraser River created impassable barrier
Heavy machinery and helicopters used to help gather fish
Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Thu 29 Aug 2019 11.37 EDT
A vessel used to transport salmon up the Fraser River. Crews have leaned heavily on local Indigenous communities to help gather tens of thousands of fish. Photograph: Darryl Dyck/AP
Helicopters, heavy machinery and nearly 200 workers are frantically working to free millions of salmon trapped by a landslide in western Canada.
Government crews in the area have worked relentlessly along the banks of the Fraser River to clear debris after a rockslide, discovered in a late June, created an impassable 5m-high waterfall.
Each year, several species of Pacific salmon – sockeye, chinook, pink and coho – travel up British Columbia’s Fraser River to reproduce. But the newly formed barrier has blocked the fish from accessing critical watersheds for egg laying.
Weeks of excavation have shown success: already, 12,000 salmon have passed through carefully constructed channels. And 44,000 salmon – as many as 3,000 per day – have been transported by helicopter.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/29/canada-salmon-fraser-river-british-columbia
= new reply since forum marked as read
Giving even their fish a free ride to a same species fish orgy by helicopter at the taxpayer's expense. Hell back when I was spawning I jumped barriers and falls much higher. It builds character.
Guess I'd better just in case.
