Why Do Salmon Become Salmon

Dams are a huge threat to the mighty Salmon of America. Although there are solutions to dams they are not enough to save the species. Salmon are slowly becoming extinct due to dams, because dams are cutting off rivers to and from the ocean and preventing them to spawn.
Salmon were thriving in the U.S. before hydropower dams were established. Salmon are the most extraordinary fish on the planet, they make an extremely long journey that start when they are only a little smelt and finish in adulthood. Salmon numbers were in the hundreds of thousands in the U.S. before dams, but now they are merely in the thousands. Salmon have been on this earth for millions of years, far longer than humans have, but now they are becoming extinct because of dams.
Salmon are a huge part in human lives, they feed us and let us know if our rivers are healthy ("Why Protect"). Plus salmon are a huge part in animals diets and keeping the ecosystems of rivers “in-check.” Salmon are responsible for over 3 billion dollars in industry and supporting tens of thousands of jobs("Why Protect"). Also salmon are considered a life- sustaining animals dating back tens of thousands of years. Although dams effect salmon they also affect native Americans too. Native Americans used the renewable resource of salmon, until it was gone. They used them as a teaching tool or a right of passage, by teaching young kids how to catch them and provide for their tribe("The impact"). Of course they used salmon for food, but salmon were a huge part of the Natives lives. They were devastated when the dams were made and the salmon stopped running through the rivers. What effect do dams have on other species. Fish depend on certain characteristics of their habitat, including temperature and turbidity. Fish depend on certain habitats for certain stages of their lives, for example, when a smallmouth bass is spawning it might want to lay it’s eggs in a sandy spot opposed to a rockier one. In addition, certain types of fish use both salt and fresh water while some use only fresh or only salt, dams can prevent fish from frequenting these places of even getting to them in the first place("Dams,