logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2021
27m 12s

Salmon wars

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Sockeye and Chinook salmon make one of the world's great animal migrations, swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean up 6,500 feet into Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, where they spawn and die - but that journey may not happen much longer.

In addition to the gauntlet of predators the fish face, from orcas to eagles, they are also running into a man-made obstacle: huge concrete dams.

Most scientists agree the dams need to go for the fish to live, but the dams provide jobs, clean energy, and an inexpensive way for farmers to get their crops to international markets.

However, US Congressman Mike Simpson, a Republican representing Idaho, has a plan to save the salmon. He wants to blow up four dams on the Snake River and reinvent the region's energy infrastructure - a plan which has been overwhelmingly rejected by his own party.

Heath Druzin investigates how a bitter fight is now playing out in America's Pacific Northwest, pitting Native American tribes and conservationists against grain growers and power producers.

Presented by Heath Druzin Produced by Richard Fenton-Smith

(Image: Sockeye salmon. Credit: Mike Korostelev)

Up next
Today
France’s new Christians
The number of adults getting baptised in France has tripled in the last three years. Why are so many more adults joining the Church in France? We meet two of France’s new Christians, one baptised this Easter, one last Easter, and hear the strong stories they have to tell about th ... Show More
26m 27s
Yesterday
Ark of the dry lands
Researchers in Morocco are developing dry-land agriculture at ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas). It is home to a gene bank, in which around 150,000 different seed-types are kept in perfectly calibrated cold vaults, and duplicated to prot ... Show More
26m 29s
Jul 9
Bonus. World of Secrets: The Killing Call
Sidhu Moose Wala explodes onto the Canadian music scene. His sound is a fusion of two worlds - hip-hop with the poetic language of rural Punjab, where he is from. After years of struggle he is making it. But with the spotlight comes a dark side. As his fame grows, so do the threa ... Show More
35m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2020
A Tale of Two Fish: Salmon, the wild and farmed
Dan Saladino investigates the possible extinction of wild Atlantic salmon within 20 years. Dan travels from the River Spey on Scotland's east coast to fish farms in the west in order to plot the decline of one species, the wild salmon, and the rise of another, farmed salmon.From ... Show More
28m 49s
Apr 2018
Dams
Half of the world’s river systems host hydro-electric dams. They offer reliable electricity but their construction forces people from their homes and disrupts the natural life of the river.Scores of dams already span the Mekong River, the great waterway linking China to Vietnam. ... Show More
27m 41s
Jun 2022
13/06/22 - salmon and rising egg costs
All week on Farming Today we're looking at the salmon industry - from wild populations to salmon farming. Scottish salmon is the UK’s biggest fresh food export with overseas sales hitting £614 million in 2021, up 36 per cent from 2020. But it can be a controversial topic and we h ... Show More
11m 34s
Nov 2020
Salmon on the Table
This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Melissa Fuster.  John Gifford discusses salmon and sustainability, drawing from his piece that appears in the curren ... Show More
41m 33s
Oct 2023
Which is healthier, farmed or wild salmon?
Salmon farming is a massive global industry. Just off the coasts of countries like Norway or Chile, hundreds of millions of these fish swim around inside big ocean nets. They provide crucial proteins and fatty acids to many people’s diets, but are they more or less healthy than t ... Show More
36m 22s
Oct 2016
Ep. 047: Laramie, Wyoming. Steven Rinella talks with Wyoming policy advisers David Willms and Nephi Cole, Ronny Boheme, along with Brody Henderson and Janis Putelis from the MeatEater crew.
Subjects discussed: mountain man Jacques Laramie; the ecology of the post-apocalypse and the best caliber for post-apocalyptic firearms; ’Waters of the United States (WOTUS)’ vs. ‘navigable waters’; Justice Kennedy’s ‘significant nexus’; the delisting of wolves in Wyoming; Mexica ... Show More
1h 46m
Jun 2022
15/6/22 - Regenerative farming, wild salmon and seabird deaths
The Sustainable Food Trust publishes a report today exploring regenerative farming and what impact this might have on self-sufficient food production in the UK. This year was one of the worst avian flu outbreaks for poultry and the disease is also hitting sea birds. Hundreds of b ... Show More
13m 35s
Jun 2021
467. Is the Future of Farming in the Ocean?
Bren Smith, who grew up fishing and fighting, is now part of a movement that seeks to feed the planet while putting less environmental stress on it. He makes his argument in a book called Eat Like a Fish; his secret ingredient: kelp. But don’t worry, you won’t have to eat it (not ... Show More
42m 55s
Nov 2022
Stories from the New Silk Road: Ecuador
The Cordillera del Condor mountain range in the east of Ecuador is where the mountains meets the jungles and the Andes meets the Amazon. In this region a Chinese run copper mine, Mirador, has grabbed the headlines over recent years, leading to controversy, resistance and talk of ... Show More
27m 19s
Feb 2020
A Fish Story: How To Improve Your Health While Protecting The Oceans with Paul Greenberg
Fish is one of the most nutritious food sources on the planet, especially when it comes to protein. But I’m usually scared to eat it. That’s because some seafood is at risk for toxicity that can harm our health, not to mention certain aquaculture methods are contributing to decli ... Show More
1h 27m