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Crapo to Assist Record Salmon Migration by Congressional Desk American Chronicle, August 14, 2010

Sockeye salmon setting modern-day record for returns this year

Washington, D.C. - The sockeye salmon runs that gave Redfish Lake its name are setting a modern-day record this season by returning to Idaho in numbers not seen since the 1940's. Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will join Idaho leaders in helping the sockeye with their final leg of the historic migration during a ceremonial transfer event at Redfish Lake.

Crapo will join Idaho Fish & Game officials, representatives of the Bonneville Power Administration and the Northwest Power Planning Council and other leaders to help transplant migrating sockeye salmon from the fish traps at Redfish Lake south of Stanley.

As many as 1400 sockeye salmon could return to Idaho this year from the Pacific Ocean; as recently as 1992, only one sockeye finished the journey and was dubbed "Lonesome Larry" by former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus. Biologists say those numbers have not been seen since before construction of hydroelectric dams along the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The Idaho Sockeye run is among the world's largest, as the fish make their way from the Pacific more than a thousand miles to Idaho's high alpine lakes.

Crapo will note the work of Paul Kline, a longtime biologist and administrator for Idaho Fish and Game. Fish biologists agree that Kline's work has contributed greatly to the record returns of Idaho's sockeye runs.

Related Pages:
Count the Fish by Government Accounting Office, GAO-02-612, Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Efforts