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KUOW's environment beat brings you stories on the ongoing cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, alternative energy, the health of the Puget Sound, coal transportation and more. We're also partnered with several stations across the Northwest to bring you environmental news via EarthFix.

Study: Salmon Could Use Earth’s Magnetic Field To Go Home

salmon swimming in a river
University of Washington Photo/Tom Quinn

Salmon travel thousands of miles out to the open ocean to feed and mature. Then after a few years they head home, back to the exact river where they hatched to spawn the next generation.

Scientists don’t fully understand how the fish find their way back, but a new study found that salmon could be determining their routes home by shifts in the earth's magnetic field.

Read the whole story on KUOW’s Earthfix