Updated

A half-million coho salmon took a fishy road trip as part of a plan to restore the species to a remote river basin in northeastern Oregon.

The Nez Perce tribe and Oregon wildlife officials hauled 10 tanker trucks full of 4-inch-long baby salmon nearly 300 miles to the Lostine River.

The smolts were spawned at a hatchery near the Bonneville Dam, 40 miles from Portland.

But the hope is that they'll return to the Lostine River after traveling to the Pacific Ocean and restore a lost salmon run.

The area once supported 20,000 coho, but the species disappeared in 1986.

Coho are vital to the Nez Perce, whose members lived in the Wallowa Valley before being evicted by white settlers.