Nanook
05-01-2000, 10:33 AM
Hope this will matter to the right people.
Salmon Like La Nina
Unlike Previous Years, The Fish Are Plentiful Biologists Credit The
Cool, Rainy Weather
On the Columbia River
CBS Rivers and streams in the Northwest are full of salmon.
(CBS) On the CBS WeatherWatch front, it's been a cool,
rainier-than-usual spring in the Pacific Northwest. It is what they
used to call "nice weather for ducks."
But as CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone reports, this year it's
great weather for fish.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Along the mighty Columbia River it is standing room only.
If there were any more boats, they'd need a traffic cop.
"Lot better than years past, lot better. Looking good," says fisherman
Dan Cankleburg.
The fishermen are reaping a harvest of salmon that they have long been
denied.
For years salmon populations here have been in serious decline. But
this year above the Bonneville Dam, there are salmon by the thousands.
One observer notes that where normally 600 to 700 salmon went over
Bonneville on a real good day lately there have been counts of 7,000 a
day.
There's nothing fishy about those figures. All the salmon that go past
the Bonneville Dam are counted as they go by - sort of a salmon census.
Fish counter Lucille Worsham has come to admire the determination of
these salmon battling their way upstream to spawn.
Biologists credit the La Nina weather pattern. It's brought cool ocean
temperatures that help produce the food that salmon need. And
plentiful La Nina rains in the Northwest have kept rivers and streams
full and healthy.
Biologist Gary Johnson says the weather might be hard on tourists but
it's good for fish.
But if La Nina is responsible, this population boom may be short term.
While it lasts, though, some fishermen are getting the salmon of their
dreams.
"They're the oiliest, richest fish there is," one fisherman says,
adding, "Don't tell anybody."
------------------
******
Salmon Like La Nina
Unlike Previous Years, The Fish Are Plentiful Biologists Credit The
Cool, Rainy Weather
On the Columbia River
CBS Rivers and streams in the Northwest are full of salmon.
(CBS) On the CBS WeatherWatch front, it's been a cool,
rainier-than-usual spring in the Pacific Northwest. It is what they
used to call "nice weather for ducks."
But as CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone reports, this year it's
great weather for fish.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Along the mighty Columbia River it is standing room only.
If there were any more boats, they'd need a traffic cop.
"Lot better than years past, lot better. Looking good," says fisherman
Dan Cankleburg.
The fishermen are reaping a harvest of salmon that they have long been
denied.
For years salmon populations here have been in serious decline. But
this year above the Bonneville Dam, there are salmon by the thousands.
One observer notes that where normally 600 to 700 salmon went over
Bonneville on a real good day lately there have been counts of 7,000 a
day.
There's nothing fishy about those figures. All the salmon that go past
the Bonneville Dam are counted as they go by - sort of a salmon census.
Fish counter Lucille Worsham has come to admire the determination of
these salmon battling their way upstream to spawn.
Biologists credit the La Nina weather pattern. It's brought cool ocean
temperatures that help produce the food that salmon need. And
plentiful La Nina rains in the Northwest have kept rivers and streams
full and healthy.
Biologist Gary Johnson says the weather might be hard on tourists but
it's good for fish.
But if La Nina is responsible, this population boom may be short term.
While it lasts, though, some fishermen are getting the salmon of their
dreams.
"They're the oiliest, richest fish there is," one fisherman says,
adding, "Don't tell anybody."
------------------
******