the film forum library tutorial contact

Remove Dams to Save Salmon and Killer Whales by The Rev. Jennifer Pratt Kitsap Sun, November 28, 2007

Regarding the Nov. 20 article, "Orca Researchers Call For Dam Removal":

I applaud the orca scientists for highlighting another aspect of what's at stake for Washington state and our region's failed efforts to restore healthy salmon to the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

The experts are now telling us that no salmon very likely means no orcas. The fate of two of our remaining Northwest totem species are tightly linked. Restoring healthy Snake River salmon represents perhaps our region's best chance to recover very large numbers of chinook - and with them, our Puget Sound orcas. It should surprise no one that these orcas historically relied on chinook from the Columbia basin once the world's most productive salmon river, now brought to its knees by habitat destruction and dams.

With clean and affordable ways to replace the energy and shipping benefits that these dams provide, effective solutions are at hand. Governor Gregoire, Senator Murray, and Senator Cantwell need to step up to solve these connected problems, restoring salmon, protecting orcas, and assuring a viable future for our farming and fishing communities.

Ten years after the amazing visitation of the orcas to Dyes Inlet in October of 1997 this seems to be especially relevent.

Related Pages:
Clean Energy vs. Whales: How to Choose? by Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor, 11/28/7
Eternal Dam Nation by Daniel Jack Chasan, Crosscut, 11/26/7
Orca Researchers Call for Dam Removal by Christopher Dunagan, Kitsap Sun, 11/20/7