An unusual number of Chinook salmon carcasses have been found in the Willamette River around Portland. State wildlife biologists are blaming warm water.
Salmon need cool water to thrive. Nick Swart, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says in the last week they've measured temperatures at 75 degrees around Willamette Falls.
Swart: "That's really a precarious condition for migrating fish."
Jeff Ziller, with ODFW's Springfield office, says the warmer water is due to drought conditions.
Ziller: "This year the water temperatures hit high very early in the year while the salmon were still migrating. Those water temperatures are taking a toll on the latter part of the spring Chinook run."
In the upper Willamette basin around Eugene and Springfield, Ziller says, the water is cooler-- fed by the chill cascade-fed McKenzie River.
This year's Chinook Salmon run was bigger than predicted. Ziller says its fortunate most of the fish had already passed upstream before water temperatures rose.