Monday January 6, 2025
Missoula Current —
Picture the journey of a typical Chinook salmon up the Columbia River. As she reaches the end of her migration, she’s traveled around 500 miles, climbed over 2,000 feet and crossed four hydroelectric dams in a monthlong journey.
She traveled the other direction as a hungry juvenile smolt, the current carrying her tail-first toward the Pacific Ocean to feed on crustaceans and smaller fish. Five years and a whopping three feet and 50 pounds later, the Chinook is ready to complete her life cycle by returning up the Columbia to lay eggs and die where she was born.
The journey is mostly a success — then suddenly, there’s an obstacle. A heaping pile of debris blocks her natal stream, preventing her from entering the mouth of the creek.
Determined to reach her breeding grounds, she leaps and leaps again, to no avail. Resigned, she instead lays her eggs in the riverbed outside the creek, where they will most likely be eaten. She dies an undignified death there, one among thousands of native fish each year who never make it back home due to human-made barriers. It’s a mission failure, both for her and likely for her roe.