77,000 Young Salmon Were Dumped Into the Wrong Creek After a Truck Crash

May 2, 2024 7:54 AM

77,000 Young Salmon Were Dumped Into the Wrong Creek After a Truck Crashed in Oregon. The spring Chinook salmon smolts should still be able to find their way to the Pacific Ocean and help boost the threatened population of the fish, officials say, though another 25,000 salmon died in the accident.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (22 comments total)

They lost about 25,000 18 month old salmon and they expect it to decrease salmon returns by less than 1000. I had no idea that salmon returns were so low -- I would have thought most of them would have died well before 18 months old and that the older fish would be more likely to make it back. Not that I had any reason to believe those things, or that I had ever actively thought of them before this, but that ratio just seems so tiny to me.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:00 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]

Did they at least truck in a couple of grizzlies to help with clean up?
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:03 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]

They lost about 25,000 18 month old salmon and they expect it to decrease salmon returns by less than 1000. I had no idea that salmon returns were so low -- I would have thought most of them would have died well before 18 months old and that the older fish would be more likely to make it back

There's a lot of hungry sharks, dolphins, seals, and Orca in That There Ocean.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:26 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]

damn Ocean you scary
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:54 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]

Check your privilege, apex dirtwalker.
posted by mhoye at 9:18 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]

Did they at least truck in a couple of grizzlies to help with clean up?

Who do you think was driving the truck?
posted by credulous at 9:33 AM on May 2 [8 favorites]

Check your privilege, apex dirtwalker.

Indeed, I feel privileged for not having to live in the ocean.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:48 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded.
posted by flabdablet at 9:51 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]

There never were salmon.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.
posted by neuron at 9:56 AM on May 2

Indeed, I feel privileged for not having to live in the ocean.

My ancestors worked very hard to not live in the ocean. I honor their efforts by also not living in the ocean.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:57 AM on May 2 [12 favorites]

credulous: Did they at least truck in a couple of grizzlies to help with clean up?

Who do you think was driving the truck?

HOW CAN THAT BE?!
posted by dr_dank at 10:01 AM on May 2 [9 favorites]

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded.

Weirdly, the phrase "there are plenty of fish in the sea" becomes less true literally as it becomes more true figuratively.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:22 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]

This sounds like one small part of a larger origin story for the most confusing superhero ever
posted by phooky at 10:35 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]

Salmon Man! And his trusty sidekick, Smolt Boy!
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:09 AM on May 2

Fighting for Roe!
posted by schyler523 at 11:29 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]

There's a lot of hungry sharks, dolphins, seals, and Orca in That There Ocean.

Also hungry sea lions at the base of the fish ladders, plus commercial, recreational, and Tribal fisheries, plus the cormorant colonies. And don't foget high temperatures, passage barriers, and low flows in the rivers, and poor ocean conditions. The fish don't stand much of a chance.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:44 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]

It looks like the High Country News article link in my very old FPP about salmon in the Columbia basin is still working, for anyone who wants to know more of the broader context of why they are spending money to place hatchery fish into the upstream tributaries as mitigation. The article is old but other than that environmental conditions and fish runs have further deteriorated, the dynamics described in the article are still all relevant.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:49 AM on May 2 [8 favorites]

There's a lot of hungry sharks, dolphins, seals, and Orca in That There Ocean.

Depends on where you release them specifically, but often the majority of released salmon don't even make it to the ocean.
posted by ssg at 12:16 PM on May 2

How was this supposed to work?

Like I mean I knew about indigenous people moving eggs from one stream to another to populate the new stream with salmon, but I thought they had to transport them as roe because salmon will return to wherever they hatched. If they hatched these in some warehouse somewhere..???? Like I assume they will come back up the river where the truck fell trying to get back to the warehouse, but when they never reach the warehouse will they still spawn or just stand (or tread water, I guess?) there confused and die or get eaten?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:07 PM on May 2

Salmon use Puget Sound to get out to sea, and since baby salmon fear darkness, Seattle put glass blocks into the sidewalk along the waterfront when they rebuilt the public pier.  It's quite pleasing to stroll along knowing why it's there.   It lets them hug the shore where it's safer without being too dark.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 3:41 PM on May 2 [5 favorites]

How was this supposed to work?

I'm no expert on hatcheries and how stocking and returns work; others can answer that better. But I will note that one of the major functions of these hatcheries is to provide fish for people to catch. This includes commercial fisheries (both ocean and river), recreational fishermen, and Tribal fisheries (which are protected by Treaty right). By and large, the wild fish are meant to be kept in the river (i.e., catch and release) to keep those genetic strains alive, and people can take home the hatchery fish to eat.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:46 PM on May 2

If they hatched these in some warehouse somewhere..????

(This is my last comment, I promise.) If you are ever in the northwest and want to see how a hatchery operates, most of the public (federal or state agency-operated) hatcheries welcome visitors. Federal example; ODFW hatchery visit list. There are also private (commercial) hatcheries and Tribal hatcheries, which may or may not be as open to visitors.

Those are just the hatcheries themselves; there is also a lot of related infrastructure, like acclimation facilities (where fish are kept before being released, to acclimate them to a river) and so on. Collectively it represents a pretty enormous expenditure, but people would rather spend money on hatcheries than remove dams or reduce irrigation withdrawals, and people love fishing (and the Tribes consistently win lawsuits to protect their Treaty rights), so here we are.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:00 PM on May 2 [3 favorites]