Tippets: Sockeye Decimated by Warm Waters, Whole Foods to Sell Lionfish, Great Lakes Salmon, Smith River Mine Op-ed, Bizarre B.C. Fish Ladder

April 20, 2016 By: Erin Block

  • Due to unprecedented warm waters, ninety-nine percent of the Snake River sockeye salmon counted at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River near Portland in 2015 died before reaching Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley. Rocky Barker reports via The Idaho Statesman.
  • Lionfish are coming to a Whole Foods near you. The invasive species will be sold as an edible fish at West Coast locations within the next six months, with expansion nationwide expected. Via Uproxx.
  • The future for pacific salmon populations in the Great Lakes doesn’t look bright. Ryan Grimes reports on invasive species and the original plan for stocking salmon in this piece via Michigan Public Radio.
  • An op-ed written by Montana outfitters Mike Geary, John Herzer, Terri Raugland, Brandon Bodecker, and Joe Sowerby, outlined how the prosed Smith River mine would impact the river. Via The Missoulian.
  • A proposed fish ladder by BC Hydro would create an “anesthetic pool” at the base of their Site C dam, where bull trout, Arctic grayling and other species would be trapped, drugged and loaded into tanker trucks. Via The Globe and Mail.