Whitney Equipment Applies Rocky Reach Design and Knowledge to Upper and Lower Baker Dam

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Juvenile sockeye and coho salmon in the North Cascades’ Baker River watershed are migrating to sea this spring in record numbers, an occurrence fish biologists believe is attributable, in large part, to Puget Sound Energy’s broad salmon-enhancement efforts.

“From year to year, a lot of diverse factors – Mother Nature is one – can affect fish populations. From what we see, the evidence suggests that the technology we recently built and deployed on the Baker is contributing, perhaps in a big way, to these record fish runs.”
As of today (June 16), approximately 470,000 young salmon had been collected by PSE fisheries crews, trucked around the utility’s two Baker River hydroelectric dams, and placed back in the river for their instinct-driven journey to the sea. More than 341,000 juvenile sockeye and 127,000 young coho salmon had been collected for downstream transport. With about a month still to go in this year’s downstream migration, both tallies already eclipse the Baker River’s previous outmigration records: 289,000 for sockeye (set in 2006), and 79,000 for coho (set in 1989). (Continue Article)

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