BOISE - Fisheries managers with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are assessing damage to summer Chinook stocks after severe rainstorms flooded the South Fork of the Salmon River fish trap and killed hundreds of adult salmon needed for broodstock.

The storms developed rapidly over the nearby mountains Aug. 6 and sent a torrent downstream, choking the stream with sediment within minutes.

The sediment flowed into holding ponds at the Fish and Game's trapping facility and suffocated the fish.

Fish and Game and Nez Perce Tribe workers rushed tanker trucks to the trapping facility to save as many broodstock chinook as they could.

They reported saving about 200 adults, while an estimated 1,200 were lost. A few more fish were expected to return, but the peak of the run is over.

Read the full story at the Idaho Statesman>>

Want to read more about Chinook salmon? Click here...