Tens of thousands of endangered salmon transported by truck to a river in the United States miraculously survived a road crash by escaping into a nearby river, officials said.
Last week, a large tanker carrying juvenile salmon was traveling in a mountainous area of the northwestern state of Oregon when it overturned on its side and went off the road.
The 53-foot-long truck ended up on its roof-luckily for the slippery passengers-right next to a small stream.
"About 77,000 salmon fell into the creek when the tanker overturned," the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.
The truck driver received only minor injuries.
Unfortunately, about 25,000 fish were not so lucky in the March 29 accident. They did not reach the river and their carcasses had to be stowed either in the tanker or on the creek bank, the department said.
Chinook salmon are threatened by the decades-long drought gripping the American West, which is worsened by climate change.
The level of many rivers has dropped and their waters have become warmer, and the construction of dams and canals has also threatened salmon.
The tasty migratory fish are usually born in rivers, swim to the ocean where they reach maturity and may stay there for several years before returning to their native rivers to spawn and die.
Because drought-stricken rivers with too little flow or unusually warm water can fatally disrupt this cycle, wildlife officials transport millions of hatchery-reared juvenile salmon to sea each year.
Salmon transport by road dates back to the 1980s, but has been stepped up in recent years as salmon numbers have plummeted.
Countless dams and canals built in the region's rivers to support towns and farms have deprived salmon of 80% of the habitat in which to spawn.
The smolts lost in last week's incident represent about 20 percent of the total number that will be released into Oregon's Imnaha River this year, officials say.
The 77,000 fish that escaped into Lookingglass Creek are likely to return there in 2026 and 2027 and produce about 350 to 700 additional adults.
"This should not affect our ability to collect future broodstock or maintain full production goals in the future," said Andrew Gibbs, Eastern Oregon Hatchery fish coordinator. / BGNES
