Sockeye salmon removed from flood-threatened Idaho hatchery

BOISE, Idaho — About 4,000 endangered Snake River sockeye salmon have been evacuated from a flood-threatened hatchery in southwestern Idaho.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game on Thursday morning loaded the fish at the Eagle Fish Hatchery west of Boise into four trucks. The fish will be transported to a hatchery in eastern Idaho.

The fish are expected to arrive in the afternoon.

The 4,000 fish are broodstock that produce future generations of sockeye.

Snake River sockeye teetered on the brink of extinction in the early 1990s. They've been the focus of an intense recovery program centered at the Eagle Fish Hatchery after being listed for federal protection in 1991.

Officials say the primary fear was that floodwater would reach the hatchery's electrical pumps that keep oxygenated water circulating.