Maybe killing those sea lions was a good idea because there a lot of sockeye salmon running up the Bonneville Dam outside of Portland, Oregon right now.
At a rate of nearly 30 salmon per minute, the dam saw a massive wave of salmon return on Wednesday, June 27 when 41,000 fish came through the dam, which brings the tally to about 290,000 salmon, and an estimated 110,000 more are expected to enter the Columbia Basin. Spectators are seeing an unprecedented show at the observation areas of the Bonneville Dam as the salmon make their return journey, and anglers in the area are sure to have their best season ever.
According to MSNBC.com, biologists credit habitat improvements in the Okanagan Basin of northern Washington and Canada, improved dam operations, and favorable ocean conditions for the numbers. Okanagan sockeye swim more than 500 miles to spawn.
In 1995, fewer than 9,000 sockeye salmon returned.
And while it seems that the Pacific Northwest has figured out their salmon problem, a record of the other kind is plaguing Alaskan anglers as the lowest return of king salmon ever is putting a damper on the season in the Last Frontier. –Brian McClintock
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