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Council says Snake River Spring Chinook Survival Rate Improving by Associated Press KNDO / KNDU, September 12, 2006

PORTLAND, Ore. -- In some good news for salmon, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council reports the survival rate of juvenile Snake River spring chinook has improved this year. The survival rate for young spring chinook salmon as they migrate past the eight dams of the lower Snake and Columbia rivers was higher this year than it has been since federal research began in 1993.

Federal scientists put the rate at 58 percent between Lower Granite and Bonneville dams.

Juvenile steelhead did NOT fare as well with a survival rate of 37 percent -- but that number is good compared to recent years.

The research suggests that fish are surviving the downstream journey to the sea better today than in the 1960s, when there were only four dams in place.