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Commentaries and editorials

Orcas: Snake River Dams

by Gayle Janzen
Seattle Times, November 24, 2017

J2, aka 'Granny,' is on the right, in a photo taken by drone in September. She's about to catch that salmon and feed it to J45, whose mother had just died. Granny herself went missing in October. I am extremely frustrated with reporting regarding our starving southern-resident orcas. The article never mentions the one thing that will actually help recover salmon runs -- to remove the four lower Snake River dams.

Barge traffic has declined, and any power that would be lost from the dams could be made up with solar and wind. The state has spent millions of dollars to help fish-hatchery salmon survive, but because salmon need free flowing rivers, their numbers continue to decline.

Unfortunately, breaching the dams is a political issue due to special interest groups' demands, so our state politicians are so far refusing to acknowledge the dam-removal solution. We have the power to take meaningful actions to save our orcas. But without political will, their extinction is inevitable, and that is shameful.



Gayle Janzen, Seattle
Orcas: Snake River Dams
Seattle Times, November 24, 2017

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