Coal Miner Teck Baffled by Fish Collapse Downstream of BC Mines

A recent survey of cutthroat trout, a species of special concern, in the Fording River immediately downstream from the mines found numbers of the prized game fish have unexpectedly collapsed. Stretches of river that teemed with hundreds of adults and juveniles were empty of fish two years later.

A Westslope cutthroat trout swims next to a lure in Idaho's North Fork of the Clearwater River on July 19, 2013. Pete Zimowsky/The Idaho Statesman via The Canadian Press/AP

Teck Resources says it’s baffled over the virtual disappearance of a rare fish from a lengthy stretch of a long-contaminated river downstream from the company’s coal-mining operations in southeastern British Columbia.