Then, the boats dump out the young fish into the Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean. Other kinds of boats also float on the Snake River. Thousands of wheat farmers, for instance, send their grain to Portland on large flat boats called barges. They are a cheaper way to ship the wheat than the alternatives, which are trains and trucks. From Portland, the grain is shipped all over the world.
Barges depend on dams.
If dams didn't plug the Snake River and create pools of deep water, barges would crash on the rocks. Another type of boat also is common on the Snake - fishing boats. Many fishermen visit the river to catch salmon, steelhead, bass and trout. One popular spot to fish is in Hells Canyon, where the Snake River forms the Idaho-Oregon border. Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge in North America, even deeper than the Grand Canyon.