Sockeye salmon over Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Lower temperatures in 2008 North Pacific waters brought in fatter plankton, which, along with greater outflows of Columbia River water, fed the resurgent populations. Proposed legislative efforts, such as the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, are attempting to protect the headwaters of the sockeye salmon by preventing industrial development in roadless areas. Record numbers of a once-waning population of sockeye salmon have been returning to the Northwest's Columbia Basin (as of June 2012), with thousands more crossing the river's dams in a single day than the total numbers seen in some previous years.
Fish species of Aravaipa Canyon itself. Various methods are used to survey the type and abundance of fish species present at each location. The most common of these is seining, a method that involves dragging a long net through the water and catching many fish at a time. This is best done by two individuals (one on either side of the net) who run downstream, scooping up the fish that are attempting to swim upstream against the current. Another form of seining involves the same two people on either side of the net, but this time they plant the edges of the net into the