PORTLAND — A hatchery program on the Oregon coast reports all of its salmon eggs are dead because of creek water contamination.
Jack Armer, manager of the Florence Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program, said Tuesday that all of the hatchery’s 10,000 coho salmon eggs died in their trays earlier this month.
Several dead fish and dead frogs were also found in the nearby creek.
Armer said the salmon eggs’ death was caused by an unknown pollutant in the water of Munsel Creek, which the hatchery uses for its operation. A subdivision’s runoff drains into the creek upriver.
The state is not investigating the die-off, and no water samples were saved.
The eggs represent a year’s production, meaning no coho will return three years from now to spawn.
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