Microsoft Grant Shows How Artificial Intelligence Could Help Salmon Recovery

One of the biggest mysteries among people working on salmon recovery in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea is what happens to juvenile fish once they head for the ocean. Survival rates of Chinook, Coho and Steelhead have all declined since the 1980s, but resource managers don't know why. A new grant from Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to greatly improve the computer models used to tackle the question. A collaborative effort called the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project has been around for nearly a decade. It unites the work of 60 different scientific and non-profit entities, all trying to understand what is preventing salmon and steelhead from coming home.