On October 5, @waDNR tweeted a simple, tongue-in-cheek poster offering encouragement to all of the spawning salmon across the state.

“Live, laugh, lay eggs and die,” it reads, scrawled out in fittingly pink script.

Amassing more than 15,000 retweets and 92,000 likes, the poster quickly achieved viral status, prompting multiple follow ups from the DNR, as well as a sea of celebratory responses.

In a second meme aptly titled, “Live your salmon purpose,” various recommendations, from swimming 1,500 miles to surviving fat bear week, appear.

In a separate follow up to the original poster, the DNR provided some additional context for the inspirational messages.

“Bad news: Pacific salmon do, in fact, die after their long upstream journey to reproduce,” it reads. “Good news: more than 150 species rely on the salmon migration and death for their own livelihood.

“Even baby salmon feed on the carcasses,” it continues. “Thanks, mom and dad…?”

Throughout the summer and autumn in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, numerous species of Pacific salmon migrate upstream from oceans to freshwater environments, where they spawn, and both males and females die soon after.

A pivotal process for the fish and the hundreds of species that rely on them for nourishment, the annual Pacific salmon migration is a sight to behold and each year, people from all over the world travel to the Pacific Northwest to witness it.

Today, however, 14 species of salmon and steelhead trout are listed at-risk for extinction under the Endangered Species Act.

Warming waters and other environmental issues resulting from climate change have placed multiple salmon populations in jeopardy. And according to Ray Hilborn, a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, this is a trend that’s lasted decades.

“In general, things have been getting worse in the lower 48…since the 1980s,” Hilborn told Newsweek. “This is mostly due to climate [and] environmental changes.

Noting that certain populations are actually getting better in Alaska, Hilborn said that despite the decline in the lower 48 states, the northern Pacific ocean now contains more salmon than at any time in history.

“Some of that [is] due to hatcheries in Alaska and Russia,” Hilborn explained. “But mostly from wild stocks in Alaska and Russia that are doing well.”

To address jeopardized salmon populations in their state specifically, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources launched WatershedConnect, “to identify and implement high-impact projects that contribute to salmon recovery.”

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources Twitter account, which already went viral earlier this year with a pair of posts about fire safety and proper hydration, is also high-impact.

In response to the series of tweets about this year’s Pacific salmon migration, many Twitter users couldn’t help but crack a smile, applauding the department’s social media personnel in the process.

“Really need to know who’s running WADNR’s comms these days,” @amy_prof posted. “Really, really great.”

“Someone at Washington State DNR really deserves a pay raise,” @s_sedwards added.

“Social media person deserves a raise,” @Katherine__13_ echoed, more simply.

Separately, Twitter user @slugcrag offered the state of Washington some encouragement of their own.

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you you aren’t great, Washington,” they wrote.

Newsweek reached out to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for comment.