A catastrophe struck when a truck that had been carrying 102,000 young salmon to an Oregon hatchery overturned on the road, causing the giant fish tank it was carrying to burst open. But fortune smiled upon the small fish, as nearly all of them rode the rush of water out of the tank and into Lookingglass Creek, the waterway leading to the hatchery they were destined for.
The driver had just left a local hatchery in Elgin, Oregon, about 300 miles east of Portland, loaded with 80,000 pounds of salmon and water. His ultimate destination was the Imnaha River near Lookingglass Hatchery in Northeast Oregon. However, with the roads slick from early morning dew, the driver lost control while navigating a sharp curve. The momentum of the water-filled container caused it to tip over and slide across the road before crashing into a rocky embankment.
This incident marked one of the worst disasters in the program’s history, dating back to 1982. The program’s purpose is to transport salmon smolts (young salmon) from river hatcheries downstream to hatcheries located upstream and blocked by dams.
Although 24,000 of the smolts couldn’t make it from the bank to the river, 77,000 managed to do so. Typically, these smolts are brought to the river hatcheries shortly before their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Once they reached their destination on the Imnaha River, the plan was for them to acclimate for a few days before embarking on their 650-mile journey through the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific.
“They hitch a ride on the spring runoff, tail first, so there is less resistance, that way they can conserve energy until they get to the ocean,” Andrew Gibbs, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish hatchery coordinator for eastern Oregon, shared in an interview just recently.
Even though they didn’t originate there, spending only a few days at the man-made pool in the Imnaha River is sufficient for these salmon to memorize the route back from the ocean, utilizing a reserve scent signal.
By releasing young salmon, called smolts, into different rivers, creeks, and tributaries, the state ensures that salmon return upstream, passing through various communities, both human and animal. These communities depend on salmon for sustenance, economic activities, and recreational purposes.
“They kind of smell their way back,” Gibbs said. “It’s an incredible life history.”
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