Then.... after they remove the dams, none of the fish will go UPSTREAM to spawn. They will return to where they were born, as you say, and that is not UPSTREAM.
SO...... removing these dams likely has nothing to do with the salmon, and more to do with some kind of real estate speculation, and having the government (citizens) pay for the removal of an old antiquated dam and power plant.
No you collect salmon eggs, you fertilizer them, you put them in the head waters above the current damn, they will return there to die, it has been proved several times already. There is a documentary on a restored river, and just like clock work the salmon returned. Look it up!!! I watched it several years ago.
I just want to make a couple of points:
1) Most of the salmon you get in the grocery store are farm raised (Atlantic salmon). And it may have been frozen, unless they specifically tell you it has been kept fresh. The greenies also fight every new salmon farm.
2) There are rivers on either side of the Elwa that never had a dam. Are they teaming with salmon?
3) The enviros have also shut down the hatcheries. So there isn’t a great surprise the salmon runs are down. A few years ago there was a big scandal as fishery employees we filmed clubbing returning hatchery salmon.