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A fish tank truck overturned near the water while transporting about 102,000 spring Chinook smolts from the Lookingglass Hatchery in northeastern Oregon.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
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Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
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A fish tank truck overturned near the water while transporting about 102,000 spring Chinook smolts from the Lookingglass Hatchery in northeastern Oregon.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
First, good news. The driver of a 53-foot-long truck suffered only minor injuries when it crashed down an embankment next to a creek in northeastern Oregon and rolled upside down. And when the truck came to a stop, its tank sat downhill next to the water.
The last detail was critical to the truck's cargo. About 102,000 spring Chinook salmon, or juvenile salmon, were raised in hatcheries. The truck overturned on a winding road reflecting Lookingglass Creek, and about 77,000 fish went from the tanker into the creek's fresh, attractive waters, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
![Northwest salmon at risk and efforts to save them](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/01/17/img_3302_sq-7ddf0c5b2912b4ec128249e809ea5c543d8d1600-s100.jpg)
But there is also bad news. 25,529 smolts were killed and recovered from tankers and riverbanks. And the surviving fish are now living in the wrong waterways.
The fish were bred at Lookingglass Hatchery to boost wild salmon populations in the Imnaha River, about 90 miles to the east.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the lost smolts account for about 20 percent of the total stocked in the Imnaha River this year.
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Thousands of young salmon died in a truck accident and never made it near Lookingglass Creek in northeastern Oregon.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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Thousands of young salmon died in a truck accident and never made it near Lookingglass Creek in northeastern Oregon.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Hundreds of smolt salmon, which refers to young salmon old enough to migrate from freshwater to saline oceans, were prepared to be released in the hope that they would migrate to the Pacific Ocean and then spawn again.
Instead of the Imnaha River, smolts live in Lookingglass Creek, a tributary of the Grande Ronde River. And for those fish that survive long enough to spawn, the stream now becomes a destination to access the fish GPS system.
“Fisheries managers expect there to be 500 to 900 fewer adult fish in 2026 and 2027 due to the losses,” the Oregon Department of Wildlife Conservation said. “The 77,000 fish that entered Lookingglass Creek will return there and produce approximately 350 to 700 additional adults.”
The Imnaha and Grande Ronde rivers are both tributaries of the Snake River, which flows into the Columbia River and eventually into the sea.
Spring Chinook salmon are federally listed as an endangered species in the Snake River, including important origins for the fish such as the Grande Ronde River and the Imnaha River.
According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the hatchery program is part of a plan to alleviate challenges to salmon populations caused by hydroelectric projects. For decades, the Nez Perce and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have been returning salmon to Lookingglass Creek and other habitats in the region to restore historical cycles of animal life and human traditions. We have been working hard for this.