(Reuters) - Alaska's summer heat wave has been pleasant for humans but punitive for some of its fish.
Overheated water has been blamed for large die-offs of hatchery trout and salmon stocks in at least two parts of the state as hot, dry weather has set in, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Hundreds of grayling and rainbow trout died in June after being placed in a Fairbanks lake, the department reported. An unusually cold spring caused lake ice to linger much longer than normal, before the water quickly became too warm, department biologist April Behr said.
Surface temperatures in the lake rose to about 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius), she said. The precise number of dead fish was not yet known. "We picked up several hundred," she said.
A similar incident occurred in mid-July at the Crystal Lake Hatchery south of Petersburg in southeast Alaska.
An estimated 1,100 hatchery king salmon died while returning to a lake to spawn, local public radio station KFSK reported.
