A dry heat wave across Southcentral Alaska has raised temperatures in Cook Inlet streams, and there’s fear the sunny weather and warm water could be bad news for salmon.
Sue Mauger has tracked non-glacier stream temperatures in Cook Inlet for years. And she says she hasn’t seen readings like these.
“We saw the highest recorded temperature we've ever measured in 15, 16 years,” she said. “That was 81.7 degrees on the Deshka River.”
That’s a north-south river between Talkeetna and Anchorage known for its premier sportfishing.