PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) -- Environmental groups are asking for emergency measures to protect salmon from high water temperatures in Oregon's Columbia and Snake rivers.
The East Oregonian reports that the warm waters in those rivers killed hundreds of thousands of fish returning from the Pacific Ocean last year. Conservation groups are criticizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for not doing more to protect the salmon and asking for measures to prevent more massive die-offs.
The groups sent a letter to Col. Jose Aguilar in Portland on Feb. 9 saying another die-off could push Snake River sockeye to the brink of extinction.
A senior fisheries biologist with the Corps says the organization is working with federal agencies and Idaho on a report detailing what happened in 2015 and ways to keep the rivers cooler.
