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NORTHWEST POWER PLANNING COUNCIL 



851 S.W. SIXTH AVENUE, SUITE 1100 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 97204-1337 



Phone: 503-222-5161 



Toll Free: 1-800-222-3355 



FAX: 503-795-3370 



JULY 29 DRAFT- JULY 29 DRAFT 



Testimony of the Northwest Power Planning Council 



before the 



Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 



United States House of Representatives 



August 10. 1993 

 Portland, Oregon 



Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is Ted 

 Hallock, and I am an Oregon member of the Northwest Power Planning Council and 

 Chairman of the Council's Fish and Wildlife Committee. 



Thank you for the opportunity to testify here today and offer the Council's 

 perspective on the decline of Pacific salmon runs. Specifically, you asked for 

 comments on the protection and recovery of these runs. 



I'd like to begin with a personal perspective. Within my lifetime, I have seen 

 salmon runs in the Columbia River, arguably the greatest salmon river on the planet, 

 reduced to a just a fraction of their historical abundance. And as we sit here today, 

 despite the good work already accomplished through the Power Planning Council's 

 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, salmon continue to die. 



As you contemplate a coastwide salmon recovery program, I hope the example 

 of what happened in the Columbia River Basin, and what is being done to rebuild the 

 salmon runs, will be instructional. 



We estimate that prior to 1850, when this region began its rapid development, 

 between 10 million and 16 million salmon and steelhead returned to the Columbia each 

 year to spawn. Today, that number is about 2.5 million, and more than 70 percent of 

 those fish return to hatcheries. Only about 500,000 return to spawning streams. 



This precipitous decline began gradually but accelerated during the last 60 years. 

 Around the turn of the century, there was concern that Columbia River salmon soon 





