Do the FCRPS dams kill 90 percent of juvenile salmon on the way to the ocean?
Response: Natural fish mortality in the rivers and oceans is very high. In free-flowing rivers, fish still face threats from predation in the river and ocean, habitat degradation, and fishing. For every 5,000 salmon eggs laid, two adult fish will return to spawn three to four years later. Scientists have measured 30-percent mortality for hatchery fish released upstream of Lower Granite Dam in the 700 kilometers of free flowing river before they reach the dam. Ongoing survival studies show that the mainstem FCRPS dams and reservoirs do not kill 90 percent of juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean. According to recent results, (with the exception of 2001, an extremely poor water year), survival rates for migrating juvenile Snake River spring/summer Chinook through seven dams and reservoirs on the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers have averaged 53 percent (ranging from a low of 40 percent to a high of 64 percent). Snake River steelhead survival has averaged about 40 percent (ranging from a
