Best We Can Do: Saving Salmon? (13:47) There is no question that the once might runs of California salmon are in deep trouble. There is also no question about how they got that way. The simple answer is that human activities, over many decades, have made the salmon’s life-cycle much more difficult than nature intended. Fortunately, there are efforts that humans have taken to mitigate the problems caused by massive engineering projects that have diverted and dammed rivers. This video explores the two main attempts to help salmon survive the challenges created by the building of the Central Valley Project and California’s State Water Project. Hatcheries have been around a very long time. The government hatcheries have become a critical tool in keeping salmon around. Many experts think that salmon would be gone by now if not for hatcheries. But as important as they are, they are not perfect. Better decisions need to be made regarding when and where to release baby salmon into the wild. We look at how hatcheries operate and watch as fish are released into a river. Another effort to mitigate the damage done to salmon takes place a couple miles from the giant water pumps at Tracy. The pumps that push Delta water south for agriculture and Southern California urban users are notorious for killing millions of fish. We visit the US government’s Tracy Fish Collection Facility to see how fish are screened before they can get sucked into the pumps. It’s a facility built in the 1950s specifically to salvage fish. After watching this video you can determine for yourself if this facility is really able to make a difference. Salmon need all the help they can get. But is this best we can do?
More info: http://salmonwaternow.org/
Produced by: Salmon Water Now
Language: English
Year: 2011
