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California officials anticipate that nearly all the young salmon in the California River could die due to the recent heat waves in the west.
A "near-complete loss" of the endangered juvenile chinook salmon is because of temperatures above 100 degrees.
The triple-digit temperatures for extended periods of time are overheating the river and making it impossible for the fish to grow beyond their egg state, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) told CNN on Tuesday, July 13.
"This persistent heat dome over the West Coast will likely result in earlier loss of ability to provide cool water and subsequently, it is possible that all in-river juveniles will not survive this season," CDFW announced in a statement.
Not only is California experiencing extremely high temperatures but the state is also going through a severe drought.
"It's an extreme set of cascading climate events pushing us into this crisis situation," said CDFW spokesman Jordan Traverso.
In an effort to save the salmon, some fish preservation organizations have launched large-scale trucking operations to transports millions of salmon to other fish farms where they are more likely to survive like the San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay.
The CDFW said 1.1 million juvenile salmon have been successfully relocated from the Klamath River in northern California.
Still, California's conditions are still a concern, and the president of the Golden State Salmon Association, John McManus says "There's a very real possibility we could lose salmon forever here."