Swimming For Salmon Four Men Hope To Focus Attention On The Plight Of Endangered Idaho Fish

Four men are preparing to swim the entire length of the Salmon River and then down the Snake River to Lower Granite Dam in Washington to dramatize the plight of Idaho’s endangered salmon.

Gail Ater and Roy Akins of the Twin Falls area will keep track of how much they drift along with the current and how much slack water they have to thrash through.

The “Sockeye Survival Swim” will be about 450 miles long and is expected to take about a month. As far as they know, no one has done it before.

Ater and Akins plan to hit the water in early July in the Stanley Basin along with Jamie James and Paul Lundgren of Boise.

“We’re going to do it in a relay,” Ater said. One man will be in the water at all times, while the others will follow in a raft. Anyone who wants to tag along and discuss ways to stave off salmon extinction is welcome, he said.

“The main point is to bang down the main Salmon, about 350 miles, then hit the ‘Great Snake Lake’ and have to start swimming,” Ater said.

He and the others will document the contrast between the Salmon’s fast, free-flowing water and the sluggish water of the Snake.

“We want to show the difficulty of smolts getting down the river,” Ater said. “I’m throwing my body and soul into this. At this point, it’s action or extinction, so it’s time to step up to the plate.”

With luck, the swim will raise public awareness of the problems faced by Idaho’s native salmon, Ater and Akins said.

The smolts must make it through the slack water behind eight hydroelectric dams, past turbines and predators. The Snake River sockeye and chinook are listed as endangered species.

The swimmers will stop along the way for hot showers, hot meals and press conferences in towns such as Riggins and Challis.

The men have received rafts, wet suits and donations.

Ater, 49, of Gooding, has been on Idaho River United’s board of directors since the organization was founded in 1990. He also is a counselor at Popplewell Elementary School in Buhl.

Akins, 23, is a raft guide.

Swimming almost the entire length of the Salmon River is still an uncharted adventure, Ater said.