The difficulty of attempting to undo over a century of human habitat modification is becoming increasingly clear. Complications continue to mount as the dam removal and habitat restoration project, which began last September, attempts to move forward on Washington's Elwha River. According to a report in northwest Washington's Peninsula Daily News, hundreds of dead chinook salmon smolts were found on the river's lower banks after last week's release of almost 200,000 juvenile fish from a hatchery several miles upstream.
According to a biologist that examined many of the dead fish, most of the fish had their gills clogged by sediment from the river, which resulted in the fish suffocating due to an inability to take up oxygen. Staff from the hatchery confirmed that they believed the dead fish were released from the hatchery. Biologists have since called the hatchery release a mistake and stated that they felt the survival rates of the recently released salmon would be "very low". With 900,000 more chinook due to be released by June, hatchery and Fish and Wildlife staff are exploring alternative release methods and sites to avoid a similar result.
The existence and timing of hatchery operations on the Elwha have been a subject of controversy since the inception of the removal project.