April 4, 2024 — First, the good news. When a 53-foot fish tanker truck crashed and rolled upside down on an embankment next to a creek in northeast Oregon, its driver suffered only minor injuries. And as the truck came to a rest, its tank settled downhill, next to the water.
That last detail was crucial for the truck’s cargo: some 102,000 spring Chinook smolts, or young salmon, that had been raised in a hatchery. The truck overturned on a twisting road that mirrors Lookingglass Creek — and some 77,000 fish made it from the tanker into the creek’s fresh, inviting water, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But there is also bad news: 25,529 smolts died, recovered from the tanker and the bank of the creek. And the fish that survived are now living in the wrong waterway.
The fish had been raised at Lookingglass Hatchery to give a population boost to wild salmon in the Imnaha River, around 90 miles to the east.