Gross, Sad Things Happening to Pacific Northwest Salmon Due to Heat Wave Share Filed to:alison colotelo Photo: Conrad Gowell/Columbia Riverkeeper Shocking new video shows that though the record heat subsided in the Pacific Northwest earlier this month, the impacts are still rippling throughout ecosystems. Columbia Riverkeeper, a nonprofit group that monitors one of the most important salmon watersheds in the Lower 48, released video and images of sockeye salmon on a tributary of the Columbia River on Tuesday. In it, the fish can be seen covered in lesions and fungus, which the group said is a symptom of the abnormally hot waters across the region that can allow parasites to grow.