Salmon Ladder an 1977 Building Exterior

Seattle Aquarium is located on Elliott Bay in Puget Sound on the edge of Downtown Seattle in a historic pier building and an adjoining pier building built for its 1977 opening. The historic pier building was largely remodeled in 2007, while the 1977 building remains a timepiece of 1970\'s classic reinforced concrete exhibit design.

anyone know how this works exactly? do wild salmon use this? or is this just a link between their dome exhibit and the little ceiling pool for the chinhook salmon?

I can't remember whether this ladder connects to the sound or not...

This would be a good question for snowleopard who I think visits this aquarium with some regularity...

geomorph said:

I can't remember whether this ladder connects to the sound or not...

Click to expand...

It does connect to the Sound, and salmon have been returning to the aquarium since it opened in the 1970s. That and the underwater dome were very unique features when it opened.

The ladder definitely empties into Puget Sound but I've never seen any fish on it. I think that perhaps there are release dates several times a year where salmon can be seen via the ladder, but for the most part it stays empty. The amount of concrete seen via this photo, and especially evident in the Underwater Dome area, is staggering, but that was the nature of things back in the late 1970's. Much of Milwaukee County Zoo was built in that era with the use of mock-rock cement backdrops, and this section of Seattle Aquarium harkens back to that time period. To be honest the Salmon Ladder is in my opinion a fascinating waste of time but the Underwater Dome structure still holds up fairly well even with its lack of modernity.

From 2001:
Ellensburg Daily Record - Google News Archive Search

Does anybody know if this salmon run is still in use?