Why are so many Coho salmon dying? The answer might be in your tires
Why are so many Coho salmon dying? The answer might be in your tires
Coho salmon spawn in freshwater, strike off for the open seas, trek back to the place of their birth – but researchers noticed that over the years, some would die before they could spawn. Arctic-Images/Getty Images hide caption
Coho salmon spawn in freshwater, strike off for the open seas, trek back to the place of their birth – but researchers noticed that over the years, some would die before they could spawn.
Arctic-Images/Getty ImagesFor decades, Coho salmon were turning up dead in urban streams the Pacific Northwest. The salmon would stop swimming straight, and then die before they had a chance to spawn. Researchers worried that unless they figured out the cause, the species would eventually go extinct. Enter a formidable crew of biologists, modelers, community scientists, environmental chemists. After eventually ruling out the obvious suspects — things like temperature, oxygen levels and known toxins — researchers eventually zeroed in on a prime suspect: chemicals in tires. But the question remained: Which one?
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This episode was produced by Jessica Yung and edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez. It was fact-checked by Tyler Jones and Kwesi Lee was the audio engineer.