Following last week&rsquo;s announcement of the closure of the Anchor River because of poor king salmon returns, fisheries on the lower Kenai Peninsula suffered another blow this week after an estimated 40,000 late-run silver salmon smolt died in the holding area at the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon.

According to Nicky Szarzi, fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the large mortality event occurred sometime after the 90,000 Coho smolt were delivered. She indicated that close to half of the stocked fish were lost.