What Now for the Orca and the Snake?

It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words. That adage could not be more true than in what we see right now – viral images of a Southern Resident orca carrying her recently deceased newborn daughter around the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the second time in recent years that the mother orca, known as J35, or Tahlequah (pronounced ta·luh·kwaa), has exhibited this behavior with a dead calf for the world to see.

If you find the images heartbreaking, you are not alone. If you don’t already understand why this tragedy is happening, you should know that the Southern Resident orcas are very hungry and malnourished. Their numbers have dwindled to just 72 individuals, down from 88 in 2005 when they were listed under the Endangered Species Act. Two other calves and four adults from their pods perished in 2024 alone.

Four dams along the lower Snake River in Eastern Washington have blocked the passage of the wild Chinook salmon the Southern Residents rely upon for food for decades. Historically, the Snake was the largest salmon-producing tributary in the entire Columbia River basin. In addition to affecting predators like the orca, the loss of salmon species has devastated the region’s Tribal Nations, whose members depend on healthy salmon runs for their own sustenance, culture, and survival.  

There are 14 dams on the mainstem Columbia River, and more than 60 dams on rivers across the Columbia basin, but the four lower Snake dams have had an outsized impact on salmon runs. Many scientific studies conclude that breaching these four dams is the best and most expedient way to address the river’s salmon scarcity. American Rivers, in collaboration with many partners, strongly advocate for removal of the dams to restore a free-flowing lower Snake River, while investing in infrastructure to maintain or enhance the region’s hydropower, transportation, and irrigation needs. This is part of an effort to restore the entire Columbia River Basin through an initiative led by the Warm Spring Tribes, Yakama Nation, Umatilla Tribes, and Nez Perce Tribe, as well as the states of Washington and Oregon.  

“We know breaching the dams is central to healing the Snake River, and we are determined to keep momentum towards that end,” said Sarah Dyrdahl, northwest regional director for American Rivers. “Additionally, we are actively supporting and leading on many other projects that are critical to the health of the whole Columbia Basin, which the Snake River, of course, flows into.” 

Those projects include millions of dollars of investment in fish recovery, floodplain restoration, irrigation efficiencies, and the removal of other barriers affecting the natural flow of the Columbia River and its major tributaries, notably the Snake and Yakima.  

On the lower Snake River, breaching the dams is anticipated to bring enormous benefit not only to the salmon and the Southern Resident orcas, but to the whole Pacific Northwest ecosystem, which includes more than 100 species that depend on salmon, as well as the people who live across the region. This website, Imagining a New Future for the Lower Snake River, shows what dam removal would mean for everyone, from Tribes to farmers, hunters to business owners, and provides a vision of what a restored river would look like. 

To ensure everyone benefits when we transition to a free-flowing lower Snake River, multiple studies have been underway to determine alternatives to the services the four lower Snake River dams currently provide for energy, transportation, irrigation, and recreation. Most recently, the Washington Department of Ecology and the Bureau of Reclamation released a draft water supply replacement study. American Rivers and our partners applaud the study’s key findings, including that sufficient water would exist in a free-flowing lower Snake River to meet all current agricultural, municipal, and industrial needs year-round, even under low-water scenarios. 

“This study is a milestone for the Pacific Northwest,” Kayeloni Scott, executive director of the Columbia Snake River Campaign, said in a statement. “It’s an acknowledgment of the harm caused by the lower Snake River dams to Tribes and their treaty-protected rights, while also showing how we can restore salmon, irrigate crops, and support thriving communities. The solutions outlined here prove it’s not a choice between fish and farms but rather an opportunity to have both.” 

Breaching the lower Snake dams aligns with a national and global trend in dam removal, which recognizes the environmental and economic benefits that come to all with the return to healthy, free-flowing rivers. As Tahlequah is desperately showing us, it is action we must urgently embrace in the Pacific Northwest.