Every winter, the Corps inspects and maintains its fish ladders at Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day dams to prepare for migration in the spring. This requires draining the fish ladders, but before that happens, crews return stranded fish to the Columbia River. On Dec. 5, 2011, park rangers at The Dalles Dam assisted the fisheries field unit crew and fish biologists in removing the fish stranded in the fish ladder. While sturgeon are routinely found in the fish ladders, finding a 7.5-foot long specimen was a surprise. Because of its large size, the crew used a basket to lift the sturgeon out of the ladder and place it safely back into the chilly waters downstream of the powerhouse. After the big fish got away, the crew returned to getting the smaller fish out of the fish ladder so the inspection could begin.