Episode 6: River of Kings, Part 2    Premiered on PBS November 15 2012    Watch on PBS

For millennia, the Nisqually Indians relied on Chinook salmon caught in the Nisqually River. Now the river’s wild Chinook are extinct and the tribe runs a hatchery to keep their fishery going. But an unusual coalition of tribal leaders, private partners and government agencies is working to restore the river from top to bottom, from its source in the glaciers of Mount Rainier to the estuary that empties into Puget Sound. Led by the Nisqually tribe, the restoration aims to fill the river once again with abundant, magnificent wild salmon. Read More>>

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Carl Safina with Nisqually tribal leader, Billy Frank
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Male pink salmon on spawning grounds of the Mashel River, a tributary to the Nisqually River
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Carl Safina about to join a river survey of young salmon, points to a miniature video camera that will show his point of view
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A survey team caught this juvenile chinook salmon in Puget Sound shortly after it left the Nisqually River on its way to the ocean
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Female pink salmon on Carl Safina’s fishing line in Puget Sound
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A spawning pair of pink salmon in the Mashel River
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Adult female chinook salmon on spawning grounds in the Mashel River
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A GoPro miniature underwater camera is recording on the end of the pole, as a chinook salmon approaches from the left
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Salmon were mercilessly overfished in the early 20th century. Here men unload salmon into huge bins on a dock at the Seattle waterfront, ca 1900. Washington State Historical Society
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Chinook salmon weighing 76 pounds ca1913. Large salmon were much more common then. Washington State Historical Society
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Members of the Nisqually Tribe harvest chinook salmon returning to the river
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Sometimes seals take a free meal out of the salmon nets. Seals especially like salmon eggs