Saving salmon will save orcas

An orca calf (“New baby orca born to L pod” Spokesman-Review, February 18, 2021, p. C5) was born recently to its pod for the first time in two years.

But this source of joy for the orca has a strong statistical chance of turning to mourning for the baby’s death. Why? Orcas live on chinook salmon, whose numbers have dropped so severely in recent decades that both chinook and the orcas who survive on them are in jeopardy of extinction. Simply put, the orcas are starving to death, and the young are especially vulnerable.

But there is also a solution at hand in the proposal of Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) to revive chinook numbers by breaching the four dams on the Lower Snake to open up one of the richest salmon-spawning rivers in the Northwest.

My only suggestion is to take action as soon as possible. Time is of the essence in rescuing both species from the doom toward which heedless human intervention is pushing them.

Linda Carroll

Spokane