Biologists bring sockeye into Idaho on trucks to get them out of hot water

By Rocky Barker
Idaho Statesman

Five sockeye salmon swam in tanks at the Eagle Hatchery on Wednesday wearing the scars of their shortened trip to Idaho.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists took the unusual step of capturing the migrating adults in a trap at the Lower Granite Dam southwest of Pullman, Wash., the last of eight dams Idaho salmon swim through on their way from the Pacific to the Sawtooth Valley. That’s because the Columbia and Snake rivers are as much as 6 degrees warmer than usual.

Northwest rivers are so warm that salmon and steelhead are dying in tributaries such as the Willamette and Deschutes rivers in Oregon. Oregon fisheries officials said Thursday that they are limiting fishing for trout, salmon, steelhead and sturgeon statewide to protect the fish from stress. Read more