the film forum library tutorial contact

To Save Washington's Orcas from Extinction, the Snake River Dams Have to Go by Alex Olson The Daily News, May 26, 2025

The stagnant reservoirs can also lead to toxic algae blooms,
disease, growth in invasive species, and other hazards.

At the beginning of 2025, a new tragedy struck the Pacific Northwest's endangered Southern Resident orca population. Tahlequah, a mother orca known scientifically as J35, made national headlines for carrying the dead body of her newborn calf for weeks around the waters of the Salish Sea. It was her second such funeral procession in only seven years.

Tahlequah's calf, J61, was first seen Dec. 23, 2024. But Dec. 31, barely a week later, scientists observed that J61 had not survived. Her cause of death is unclear, though it is likely that malnutrition played a significant role.

While Tahlequah's tour of grief received widespread attention, her loss is far from unique. The Southern Residents have been in crisis for decades, with dwindling food supplies causing greater and greater harm to the already-endangered population.

"One of the biggest issues that they're facing is lack of food, specifically the Chinook salmon population, which is about 80% of their diet," Carmen Monter, the incoming campaign coordinator for WashPIRG's Save the Orcas campaign at UW, said. "And one of the main reasons that population of salmon is threatened is because of the presence of the four lower Snake River dams."

Built in the 1960s and 1970s, these four dams -- Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite -- provide hydroelectric power by blocking the lower Snake River, one of the Columbia River's biggest tributaries. However, they have also had significant environmental impacts, particularly on seasonal salmon runs.

Many of the salmon populations that the orcas depend on are born in the Snake River and return from the Pacific Ocean to the Snake River to spawn. However, by blocking the river's flow, the dams create reservoirs of stagnant water, which can heat up to such a degree that salmon migrating up and down the river cannot survive.

"The salmon suffocate due to lack of oxygen, and if they do survive, it causes issues to their reproduction and migration," Monter said. "That's the big problem with the dams, and it's not an issue that can be solved with fish ladders or hatchery programs, because at the end of the day, they can't get through the reservoirs."

The stagnant reservoirs can also lead to toxic algae blooms, disease, growth in invasive species, and other hazards, resulting in severely decreased salmon runs compared to before the dams were built. Because of this, many environmental groups have advocated for the removal of the dams, in order to restore the salmon population and thus also the orcas, bears, and countless other species who depend on them.

"There are other threats that the Southern Residents are facing -- noise pollution, vessel pollution, and toxic accumulation in the ocean," Abby Dalke, an outreach coordinator with the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition, said. "But an individual orca can't overcome those stressors if they don't have enough energy through their diet, so there's a cumulative impact of not having enough food to be able to fight off those other impacts."

Indeed, the health issues stemming from chronic malnourishment have long been established as a major threat to the survival of the Southern Residents. Without enough salmon from the Snake River, they are slowly starving to death.

However, not all hope is yet lost. If the Snake River dams were breached, and the salmon population allowed to recover, the species would at least have a fighting chance to recover from decades of man-made decline. Dam removal is also not unprecedented -- dams on the Elwha and Klamath rivers were breached in 2012 and 2024, respectively, with near-immediate benefits. On the Klamath, the significant recovery of salmon populations occurred within only 10 days of the final dam being breached.

Though expensive, dam removal on the Klamath also had some degree of financial benefits. According to one expert, "the hydropower they provided was so marginal that Oregon and California utilities recognized it was more cost-effective to remove them." Similarly, the dams on the lower Snake River provide only a meager amount of electricity compared to proposals for more sustainable replacements.

In the case of the Snake River dams, there is broad consensus that their removal is a necessary step for ecological recovery. According to a 2022 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in order to restore the Snake River salmon population, "the centerpiece action is restoring the lower Snake River via dam breaching." That same report concluded that the science "overwhelmingly supports acting, and acting now."

In addition to the environmental impacts, dam removal is also a key issue of Indigenous sovereignty in and around the Pacific Northwest and Columbia basin. Many tribes have treaty provisions guaranteeing their right to fish salmon, which are clearly undermined as those same salmon populations draw closer to extinction.

Likewise, there is a longstanding cultural and religious connection between the Southern Resident orcas and Indigenous peoples of the Salish Sea. Among others, the Lummi Nation has been a major force in advocating for the removal of the lower Snake River dams.

"In our view, everything's alive and we're all interconnected," former Lummi Council President Jay Julius said in a 2022 interview with KNKX. “Salmon rivers, the Salish Sea, Southern Residents and orcas -- qwe 'lhol mechen -- they symbolize so much.”

In 2023, a coalition known as the Six Sovereigns -- the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Nez Perce tribe, alongside the states of Washington and Oregon -- reached an agreement with the federal government to lay the groundwork for salmon restoration and the eventual breaching of the lower Snake River dams. However, since Donald Trump's inauguration, progress on the removal of the dams has stalled.

Unfortunately, breaching the dams remains an uphill battle. Because they are administered by the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers, their removal would require an act of Congress -- something unlikely to be supported by the current Republican majority.

Removal of the dams would also present a significant logistical challenge. It would require the creation of new energy infrastructure, investment in rail to replace transportation of goods that currently rely on Snake River's system of dams and locks, and new irrigation systems to ensure that farmers in the Snake River basin do not encounter water shortages.

However, it would not be impossible. As mentioned above, dams have been breached before, with significant positive impacts; the Klamath dam removal project bears many striking similarities to what is necessary for the lower Snake.

Furthermore, this represents a moral responsibility that we cannot afford to abdicate. If these dams are not removed, and soon, it is extremely likely that salmon and orca populations will only continue to decline.

To save the Southern Residents, we will need to put organized, consistent pressure on our elected representatives. As with any other issue, if our politicians won't do the right thing on their own, it's our job to force them to.

That can mean raising awareness, organizing petitions, and building coalitions of activists, like the work done by WashPIRG and Save Our Wild Salmon.

It can also mean getting out in the streets, protesting, building movements, and making sure elected officials know that if they fail to do the right thing on this issue, they'll be voted out.

It also means having hope.

On Dec. 31, 2024 -- the same day that J61's death was observed -- J62, another orca calf, was first spotted. According to scientists, she appears to be healthy, playful, and growing.

Let's make sure she has a better future to look forward to.