, patagonia media grants, the maybelle clark mcdonald foundation, the freas foundation, the dalton family trust, and the north umpqua foundation. ♪♪♪

, patagonia media grants, the maybelle clark mcdonald foundation, the freas foundation, the dalton family trust, and the north umpqua foundation. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ shane anderson: the world has not lost an entire race of salmon since the prehistoric saber tooth went extinct over 5 million years ago. ♪♪♪ shane: but now time is running out for the last wild runs of spring chinook, arguably, the most revered pacific salmon. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ deborah giles: salmon are the most amazing species on the planet, and really, if you're talking about one group of those salmon, the spring chinook salmon are at the top of that list. silas whitman: spiritual importance, that fish is very pronounced. russ thurow: friend of mine calls them mariners and mountaineers, and that's really an apt description of these fish. they're basically the best of the best, and these fish are at really high risk of extinction. mike miller: spring run's just a good example of a species that is so critical from an ecological, a cultural, and an economic perspective, yet it's just disappearing, and they've been disappearing for decades, and nobody's r