The early 1960s saw more than 100,000 wild A-run and B-run steelhead* enter the Snake River each year. By the 1974-1975 season, that number had dropped to 12,200, with only 3,000 fish returning to Idaho rivers and streams. In 1997 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed all Snake River steelhead as threatened of extinction under the Endangered Species Act.
Fast forward 20 years.
In 2017 fish managers predicted as few as 770 wild B-run steelhead would cross Lower Granite Dam during the 2017-2018 season, later raising this figure to 1,100. Pinning down accurate fish numbers is complicated. Not all B-run steelhead are over 78 centimeters in length, cross Bonneville between Aug. 25 and Nov. 1, or spend two years in the ocean. Further, up to a third of the B-run over Lower Granite Dam are bound for the middle and south forks of the Salmon River rather than the Clearwater. Yet, no matter how you look at it since the late 1950s around 98 percent of the Clearwater River wild B-run steelhead have disappeared.
LINK (via: Idaho Rivers United)
Shit like this doesn’t help
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