Washington fish trap facility to be largest in North America

SEATTLE, Wash.  (AP) — Washington will soon be home to the largest fish trap in North America.

The Army Corps of Engineers will complete a fish trapping facility 50 miles south of Seattle in October.

The White River Fish Passage Facility will be able to handle roughly one million salmon per year, replacing an old facility that was only able to trap 20,000 fish per year.

The Seattle Times reports the $131 million facility was built on the insistence of tribes and federal fisheries managers who say it will protect species like the spring chinook, steelhead and bull trout by trapping pink salmon, whose growing population is displacing other fish.