Oregon, United States

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A tanker truck overturned in Northeast Oregon on Friday. Over 100,000 live salmon were in the vehicle. Most of them reached a nearby creek and survived.

On Tuesday, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stated that a 53-foot truck carrying the fish from the state's Lookingglass Hatchery tumbled over as it went through a sharp turn.

The driver managed to escape the accident with minor injuries, NBC reported. Members of a local poultry farm, Nez Perce tribe members, and the Union County Sheriff's Office helped clean, the ODFW stated. 

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"We are thankful the ODFW employee driving the truck was not seriously injured," Andrew Gibbs, ODFW fish hatchery coordinator for Eastern Oregon, said in the release. "This should not impact our ability to collect future brood stock or maintain production goals."

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Although 25,000 spring Chinook smolts or young salmon of the 102,000 lot did not make it through, about 77,000 made it safely into the Lookingglass Creek, a tributary of the Grande Ronde River. 

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The truck that overturned planned to deliver them to an already-constructed pool at the Imnaha River. The hatchery raises Chinook salmon for both tribal and sport harvest. It increases the endangered wild population in the Imnaha River.

The department issued a statement saying the smolts lost comprised 20 per cent of the total fish count state hatcheries planned to let go into the Imnaha River in 2024. 

Lookingglass Hatches, located about 300 miles east of Portland, is one of the 33 hatcheries in Oregon. It harvests stocks of salmon used for food or sport fishing. 

(With inputs from agencies)