Hundreds of thousands of Chinook salmon from a California state-run fish hatchery died after going through a dam tunnel on the Klamath River.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife released 830,000 of the juvenile salmon from their new Fall Creek Fish Hatchery on Feb. 26 into the Klamath tributary.
On Saturday, the department announced that many of the salmon died after going through a tunnel in the 60-year-old Iron Gate Dam. The tunnel and dam are slated to be removed this year, California wildlife officials said.
The officials didn’t say how many of the salmon died going down the Klamath River, where they will live for up to three years before heading into the Pacific Ocean.
The cause of the mass mortality, officials said, was “gas bubble disease,” which occurs after fish go through environmental or physical trauma as part of a radical change in water pressure.
Other salmon downstream from the dam showed up on monitoring equipment as healthy. Until the dam is removed, future salmon releases will take place below the Iron Gate Dam, the CDFW said.
The hatchery still has 3.27 million healthy Chinook salmon held in reserve, due to be released later in March, officials said.
“Poor habitat conditions caused by the dams and other circumstances such as this are reasons why CDFW conducts releases of hatchery fish at various life stages,” officials said in their release.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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