More than a dozen salmon pools on the Miramichi river system have been closed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Despite rain in much of the province Tuesday, Ernest Ferguson, area director of DFO in eastern New Brunswick, says the water level in the river is low.

With the heat, the water temperature has reached 20 C and that's too hot for the salmon.

So they are congregating in pools.

“Since all the salmon are all gathered in the same place this is why we decided to close 15 pools,” Ferguson said.

There can be between 20 and 100 salmon crowded into those pools, he said.

If people start fishing it'll stress the salmon or even kill some of them.

He says last night’s rain was not enough.

“We need rain like maybe for a couple of days in order to raise the water and help drop the temperature of the water.”

Ferguson says this is early for DFO to be closing pools and so far it's only on the Miramichi.

If the weather doesn't improve, more pools or perhaps sections of the river may close, he said.