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A fishing boat heads to Willamette Falls just upstream from the Oregon City bridge. Fishermen annually camp out on the Willamette River hoping to catch spring Chinook salmon or winter steelhead.
(The Oregonian)
Update: Warm water expected to keep killing Willamette River salmon
Unusually warm water temperatures in the Willamette River are killing spring Chinook as they swim upstream to spawn.
Anglers on the Willamette are reporting sightings of dead salmon floating downstream, casualties of water too warm for their survival.
Temperatures in the Willamette on Thursday were as high as 74 degrees in some places, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"The Willamette gets warm, but we wouldn't normally be seeing temperatures like this until July," Hargrave said.
State fish biologists were on the scene Thursday investigating the die-off.
A poster on the website ifish.net reported seeing at least 30 of the dead fish floating down the river or lying on the banks Wednesday evening near Oregon City's Clackamette Park, at the confluence of the Willamette and Clackamas rivers.
"I've never seen this many before," the poster known as skunkpatrol wrote.
Other commenters on the online forum echoed the first poster's concerns.
Hargrave said this is the first temperature-related fish kill of 2015, but more are likely as unusually low flows combine with warm weather to create treacherous conditions for fish.
--Kelly House