Friday, June 12, 2009

Seattle Diarist: Fish stories....


We all know that salmon is to Seattle as lox is to the Upper West Side. Hmm, I guess we wouldn't have lox, would we, if it weren't for the salmon in Seattle? Or maybe we get ours from Alaska or the Atlantic...or the Holy Land...who knows. Whatever. I love salmon, and our first stop on the way to a hiking trip in the Cascades was the Wallace River state hatchery. Fascinating.

Salmon 101. The fish are born in fresh water ponds and streams, then swim out to the ocean where they hang out in schools (huhuhuh), get bar/bat mitzvahed, frolic, and then return to the freshwater streams where they spawn, then die. End of story.

Salmon 201. Salmon don't come home to spawn in just any stream----while still young fry, they imprint to the precise chemical elements in the streams where they were born, and, as adults, after a few years in the ocean, they return to the exact same streams to spawn. Every mother's dream: sonny, you're home!! Ma, I can't help it ! .....

At the hatchery, we learned about the processes for harvesting thousands of eggs from females who have been 'humanely sacrificed" (how, they don't say), and then fertilize the eggs with the milt (i.e. sperm) they milk from the male (see schematic), pour into a bucket, mix, and serve.....










Fertilized eggs are incubated in trays irrigated by cool freshwater.
Here's Kevin taking a closer look at the trays....nothin' in there yet.




The bad eggs manifest by turning white and are discarded. The rest---well, they turn into salmon fry and are raised in artificial ponds (see right) until they're old enough to be
released into ponds and streams and off they go...




1 comment:

  1. Fascinating info. Gee Bob, with your blog, I don't ever need to travel myself now! I can just live vicariously through you. Where are we going next?

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