232 The Lije Story of the Fish 



front of these blind alleys and stay there until they rotted, 

 and all their unborn children rotted with them? 



Only time could give the answer, and to make sure that 

 the true answer was obtained a long-range counting program 

 was immediately started. Picket barriers were set up in each 

 fishway with gate-controlled openings two feet wide and sub- 

 merged platforms over which the fish pass (Plate VI). It be- 

 ing known that upstream spawning migrants move very little 

 at night, the gates were kept open only during the daytime 

 when observers were on duty to count and identify the fish. 

 Each observer had tg be provided with a battery of tallies, 

 for in addition to the various salmons and the steelhead 

 trout, it was found that large numbers of suckers, squawfish, 

 and lampreys were using the ladders, as well as smaller 

 numbers of carp, shad, sturgeon, various minnows, and even 

 a few black bass and crappies. As may be imagined, this 

 counting work requires a quick eye and mind and agile hands, 

 for as many as 4,300 fish have been recorded up one ladder in 

 one hour. The mental strain involved is shown by the fact 

 that the workers — mostly women, who have proved better at 

 the job than men — only work forty-five minutes out of every 

 hour, with a fifteen-minute rest period. Intensive advance 

 training is necessary, and to help the newcomers learn the 

 different species and at the same time to provide means of 

 examining doubtful specimens, devices have been installed 

 which can stop any fish at any time and bring it up to the 

 surface for examination. 



When the end of the first season came it was found that 

 some 470,000 salmonid fish had passed up through the ladders, 

 and this did not include the spring salmon run and some of 

 the steelhead which migrated before the dam began to act as 

 a barrier. It was found that the fish passed upstream with no 

 significant delay and that most of them used the submerged 

 openings instead of making the jumps. And, since the lad- 



