Researcher looks at why some chinook salmon don’t make it up the Whitehorse fish ladder
William Twardek, a PhD student in the Cooke Lab studying chinook salmon migration in Yukon, says there’s ample reason to be concerned about how the fish will survive a changing environment — but he’s optimistic.
“They are pretty resilient animals. They’ve been around for a long, long time and there’s been changes in the climate in the past and they’ve been able to adapt,” Twardek said.
“So hopefully they’re a flexible enough animal that they’re able to stick around in the future. But you know, it’s not going to be easy for them.”
Twardek, who studies at Carleton University, said the seed for his research was planted by a former supervisor who suggested looking at how well the fish ladder works.