How to Use fish ladder in a Sentence

fish ladder

noun
  • At the weir, salmon swim up a fish ladder and into holding ponds.
    — Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press, 19 Dec. 2024
  • Small eels can use a fish ladder at the dams, while large eels are able to wriggle up and over.
    — Liz Bowie, baltimoresun.com, 17 May 2018
  • The dam’s current fish ladder limits which species can jump over the dam.
    — Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 28 Apr. 2025
  • Two huge fish ladders girded with thick bars brace the powerhouse.
    — Sallie Tisdale, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019
  • Rather than pay to retrofit their dams with fish ladders, the utility opted for removal.
    — Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Children watch a salmon head into a fish ladder at Bonneville Dam.
    — Bill Weir and Rachel Clarke, CNN, 22 Oct. 2019
  • The dam was built without fish ladders more than 75 years ago, cutting off critical salmon runs.
    — Becky Kramer, The Seattle Times, 24 Mar. 2018
  • But in practice, modern science has deemed the whole fish ladder concept a giant failure.
    — Aja Romano, Vox, 11 Aug. 2019
  • More and better fish ladders, detours that allow fish to pass safely through the dams in ascending pools, were built.
    — Sallie Tisdale, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019
  • The sea lions that discovered Bonneville quickly learned to go through the fish ladders.
    — Sallie Tisdale, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019
  • Kids, teenagers and adults watched the release as harlequin ducks swam to the edge of the fish ladder, hoping to catch an afternoon snack.
    — Emily Mesner, Anchorage Daily News, 17 June 2021
  • This includes not just salmon but also creatures like lampreys—primitive, jawless fish with toothy mouths that suction to their hosts. Solutions for migratory fish exist, like fish ladders or fishways, which provide a detour in the form of ascending pools.
    — Alka Tripathy-Lang, Ars Technica, 11 Jan. 2024
  • Jessica Nichols, the state biologist, works on the fish ladder along the Butte Creek.
    — Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2021
  • Despite the inclusion of fish ladders within major dams, there are white sturgeon in rivers like the Columbia year-round these days.
    — Joe Cermele, Field & Stream, 19 Oct. 2023
  • The money pays for fish ladders around dams, habitat restoration projects, monitoring by scientists and other needs.
    — Matthew Brown, Fortune, 3 Jan. 2024
  • While equipment such as fish ladders are designed to help salmon go up and over dams and enter upstream spawning areas, such measures aren't always effective.
    — Christina Nunez, National Geographic, 13 May 2019
  • Ice Harbor Dam is about 100 feet high, with two fish ladders and a bypass route for juvenile fish heading to the ocean.
    — Bill Weir and Rachel Clarke, CNN, 22 Oct. 2019
  • Dams, even those with fish ladders, decimate salmon populations, as the fish make long upstream journeys to the spawning beds in which they were born in order to reproduce.
    — Eli Francovich, The Seattle Times, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Permits from the federal and state government require installation of the fish ladder and eel passageway.
    — Tyra McClung, courant.com, 9 June 2019
  • The adult salmon swim up the Sacramento River and into Battle Creek, then up a fish ladder to the hatchery’s holding ponds.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2022
  • In theory, fish ladders operated by simulating the way migratory fish swim upstream in real life.
    — Aja Romano, Vox, 11 Aug. 2019
  • Some solutions that fall short of full dam removal, like installing a new fish ladder or removing the dam and replacing it with a series of smaller obstructions, which might not change water levels as much.
    — Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Apr. 2022
  • Other parts of this project included building better fish ladders and fish screens to give migrating salmon an easier time navigating around remaining obstacles.
    — Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2018
  • This can mean anything from providing accommodation for bats or building a fish ladder for the Atlantic salmon swimming through the River Boyne on site.
    — Theresa Christine, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2021
  • On average, Bryan said the Whooshh system is about 80% less expensive than more traditional methods of helping fish get around dams, such as fish ladders.
    — N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY, 12 Aug. 2019
  • There are now thousands of dams throughout the Mississippi River Basin, most of which lack fish ladders or other structures allowing for fish passage.
    — Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 24 Apr. 2024
  • But supporters of the dams point to the benefits of hydropower and navigation provided by the dams, and say fish ladders and other methods of transporting salmon past the dams are helping restore the runs.
    — Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2018
  • To reach the location where it was found, the shark would have had to swim all that distance upriver while passing through eight major dams—all of which have fish ladders that are constantly being monitored by fisheries technicians.
    — Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 16 Aug. 2023
  • This journey requires them to climb fish ladders over dams, navigate culverts diverting streams under roads, and ascend up to elevations of 7,000 feet.
    — Idaho Statesman, 12 June 2026
  • This dam, which was constructed without a fish ladder or bypass, cut off the paddlefish from their only spawning grounds upstream, which had only been discovered in the late 1970s.
    — National Geographic, 8 Jan. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fish ladder.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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