A tanker truck overturned in northeastern Oregon on Friday, spilling out more than 100,000 live salmon, most of which ended up in a nearby stream and survived another day of swimming, officials said.
A 53-foot-tall truck carrying fish from the state's Looking Grass Hatchery overturned while navigating a sharp corner, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Tuesday.
The driver survived the accident with only minor injuries, and local hatchery officials, members of the Nez Perce tribe and the Union County Sheriff's Office helped with the cleanup effort, ODFW said.
“We are grateful that the ODFW employee driving the truck was not seriously injured,” Andrew Gibbs, ODFW Fish Hatchery Coordinator for Eastern Oregon, said in the release. “This does not impact our ability to collect or maintain full production targets.” future. ”
Of the approximately 102,000 spring Chinook smolts that fell off the truck, more than 25,000 did not survive. However, about 77,000 people made it safely to Lookingglass Creek, a tributary of the Grande Ronde River.
The original plan for the smolt was for it to be trucked to a pool already built on the Imnaha River. The hatchery is responsible for supplementing the endangered wild population at Imnaha and raising Chinook salmon for tribal and sport harvest.
The missing smolts accounted for 20 percent of the total number of fish the state hatchery plans to stock into the Imnaha River this year, the ministry said in a statement.
The Looking Grass Hatchery, located about 300 miles east of Portland, is one of 33 hatcheries in Oregon that harvest salmon stocks for food and sport fishing.