2009 Project Updates

Salmon Log, 2008-2009

12-10-08…All 5th and 6th grade students from Kendall Elementary visited the Kendall Hatchery.  We harvested and fertilized eggs from a couple of the incoming COHO salmon.  We also had a chance to view the tanks and runs from the hatchery’s holdings of last year’s salmon, and fed them J

12-10 to 1-22-09…Our eggs are sitting in incubation trays at the hatchery in cold water!

1-22-09…Our COHO eggs were brought to Kendall school and put in our tank.  The “nursery” of the wall-eyed stage is set with a  temperature  at 47-48 degrees F.  The water and rocks in the tank came from Kendall Creek.  It took many trips to carry the water to fill up a 70 gallon tank, with about five gallons per bucket!

1-30-09…Our first hatchings from the egg shell J  Thanks to Mt. Baker’s technical experts, we can watch the hatchings close up on a TV monitor beside the tank.

2-2-09…More hatchings J

2-3-09…First “foam” removed from the surface of the water.  This comes from the increased protein level after the hatchings and “shell” particles.

2-4-09…All but two have hatched out:  one does not look like it will (too pink, with an increasing fuzz around it indicates the egg is dead), and one that looks healthy but is taking its time.

2-5-09…The last healthy one hatched out today!  The TV monitor and flex cam are set up for great “close-ups” J

2-13-09…First water exchange and testings.  We tested for pH, ammonia, and nitrite.  Not bad (trying to stay at 0 ppm for the ammonia dn nitrite and 7.2 for the ph).  We took about 10 gallons out, and put 10 gallons of new creek water in.  The dorsal and caudal fins are very distinct, and we can see the alevin stage of the fish losing their red egg sacs as they gain nourishment.

2-20-09…Second water exchange and testings.  Still looking healthy.

2-24-09…We have swimmers!  As the alevin are not so top heavy with their bellies, they are hopping and swimming at a higher level in the tank J

March 2…It is fun to watch the salmon change so quickly.  Dorsal and caudal fins are very definite, as well as spotted markings and coloring.  They are getting hungry!

March 4…The Kendall Hatchery came to examine our fish today.  GREAT report!  They are ready to feed, so everyone got “breakfast” J

March 9…The more they eat, the more they defecate!  Fact of life J  So, we are collecting two five gallon buckets every other day from the Creek and exchanging them with two five gallon buckets from the tank.  This helps to keep our nitrite, ammonia, and ph levels close to normal.  We have two air bars and a filter system that also help to keep things circulating and cleaning.

March 16…The fish are getting fed once a day, everyday.  We are continuing to do our water exchanges, but now we have to change the filters every week!  So far, everyone is healthy.

March 25…Today we noticed that one of our salmon looks albino.  It does not have the same strong coloring as the other fish, but it still appears to be healthy and likes to eat.

March 30…A sad day, and a happy day.  Except for the two salmon that did not survive in the beginning, everyone else looks super.  The weather is cooperating, so we are taking the fish to Kendall Creek for release.  Every student in Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Shepherd’s class had a chance to reach into the buckets and gently lay a fish into the water. 

                The area we chose was near the NSEA site we had worked on earlier in the Fall.  It has a log jam to protect the fish from the current and the herons.  While we were there, we got to see salmon the same size as our that were part of the natural spawning in the Creek for this year AND some of the larger fish still living in the Creek that came last year. 

April 1…Today, we got a call from another school in Whatcom County that is raising COHO.  Mrs. Shepherd is going to visit them during our Spring Break – and maybe we can correspond with that class and find out how alike and different their salmon experience was!

2008 Project Updates

Due to technical difficulties, the last reports for 2007 were not recorded.  However, students did release the salmon into Kendall Creek the second week of April with a wonderful ceremony J

December 12, 2007…students visited Kendall Hatchery to harvest COHO eggs from this year’s spawning run.

December 13, 2007…the fertilized eggs were safely staying cold in the hatchery’s incubation trays!

December 20, 2007…retired Science teacher, Jack Short, helped students prepare the tank with rocks, gravel, water from Kendall Creek, and a refrigeration unit.

January 16, 2008…about 400 wall-eyed staged salmon eggs arrived at our Kendall Elementary “nursery”.

January 29, 2008…our first hatching occurred J

February 14, 2008…Valentine’s Day, and our first brave fish swam to the top of the tank (which means it was losing its belly egg-sac).

March 6, 2008…the hatchery crew brought us fish food, and we gave our first feeding (which means over 90% of the nursery had lost their egg-sacs).

March 10, 2008…students completed their first tank water exchange – one bucket of tank water out, one bucket of creek water in.  As the fish eat, they also expel waste J.

March 11, 2008…first water tests:  pH was 7.2, nitrate was 0.1ppm, ammonia was 0ppm. J

March 22, 2008…students completed their second major water tests:  pH was 7.5, nitrate was 0-0.1ppm, ammonia was 0ppm.  Still within a safe range J  Students also increased their water exchanges (two tank buckets out, two creek buckets in) since they are feeding twice a day and want to keep the water clean with lots of oxygen.

April 11, 2008      We delivered our fry-staged salmon to Kendall Creek today.  Mrs. Shepherd’s class walked them down in buckets of creek water, looked for a quiet habitat site, and each student was able to put a “handful” of them into the water.  Along the riparian zone, we looked for overhanging trees to keep them shaded and cool, and we looked for log snags where they could hide under to stay protected from the herons.  They will stay in the creek for one to two years.  Of the 500 COHO that we raised, we only lost about a dozen J   While at the creek, the students were able to see many of last years salmon still hiding in the quiet pools.

April 21, 2009     Usually, this would be the time that we are cleaning out the tank and tucking it away until next December.  However, today the hatchery brought us 16 smolt-staged COHO so the students could observe  what ours will look like in another year.  Seven were put into Mrs. Davis’ tank, and nine were put into Mrs. Shepherd’s tank.  Students will continue to monitor water quality and feed them daily.  Because they will eat more and more often than the fry, we will have to have water exchanges every other day to keep the tank clean!

May 16, 2008     Today we released the smolt into Kendall Creek.  The largest one measured at 15 cm long!!  Again, we looked for a protected site for their new home.  Next stop on their journey will be the Nooksack River!

May 30, 2008     Mrs. Davis’ and Mrs. Shepherd’s students worked at Kendall Creek today for four hours, helping NSEA (Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association) with tree planting and identification, water quality testing, etc to be sure our habitat is healthy for the salmon.

 

2007 Project Updates

December 16, 2006…COHO salmon eggs were harvested and fertilized for the new season.  Kendall 6th graders visited the Kendall Hatchery to learn about the salmon cycle.  Lots of eagles flying overhead J

January 23, 2007…About 400 COHO eggs were moved from the hatchery’s incubation trays and brought to Kendall.  Thanks to retired Science teacher, Jack Short, our 70 and 30 gallon tanks were ready and waiting for them.  They are currently at the ‘wall eyed’ stage of development.  They look like round, orange eggs but you can see two black spots.  We have the larger tank in the West wing of the school, and the smaller tank in the East wing.  The larger tank is monitored by a flex cam, which allows everyone to watch close-up on the TV.  Another device allows anyone to watch the salmon on the world-wide web.

January 30, 2007…The first egg hatched today in the East wing.  Because that tank is smaller and the temperature is probably a couple of degrees warmer (48 vs 47), and because the light was on at that tank most of the time, those salmon were predicted to hatch earlier.  The West wing tank will probably take a few more days.  When the salmon hatch out, their soft casings float around in the tank and break into little pieces.  This raises the pH and nitrite levels because of the increased protein.  Student will go to Kendall Creek for about 1/3 of new water to exchange and help clean the nursery.  The fish have big red bellies called egg sacs, which make them stay close to the bottom of the tank.

February 14, 2007…Valentine’s Day!  In the monitor we can see the fish moving their mouths.  They look like cows chewing their cuds.  They are getting their nourishment from their egg sacs, and the sacs are getting smaller and pinker.

February 24, 2007…We watched the first salmon try to swim across the tank.  As one 6th grader said, these salmon are very “athletic”.  After their exercise, they go back to the bottom of the tank to rest.  Water testing for pH, Nitrite,  and Ammonia have been done weekly, as well as water exchanges.  So far, the test readings have produced good data.

2006 Project Updates

December, 2005           Kendall students from Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Shepherd's classes visited the Nooksack Salmon

                                    Hatchery to harvest COHO eggs.  After fertilizing them with the milt, they were added to the

                                    incubation trays.  What a beautiful day...icy, cold, sun shining, eagles and herons hovering

                                    in trees above the salmon runs.

 January, 2006             By the first week, our eggs were ready for transport.  A major thanks, once again, to retired

                                    Science teacher, Jack Short, for helping us prepare the tank and refrigeration unit (which keeps

                                    the creek water in the tank about 47 degrees).

 February, 2006           By the first week of February, our eggs were hatching out.  An interesting observation this

                                    year:  when the eggs went into the tank, they settled in about three piles, instead of sparse

                                    scatterings.  Now that they have hatched out, the alevin want to stay in the "dog piles".  They

                                    seem herd bound, clustering very close together. 

 March 6, 2006             It was fun today for the 6th graders to listen to little voices in the hall, stopping to notice a few

                                    fish swimming to the top of the tank.  As the alevin digest their egg sacs and "button up", they

                                    have more mobility.  Those what are taking their time to change are still staying close to the

                                    bottom.  The real latent bloomers that are still "top heavy" often look out of place with their

                                    heads still down.  The swimmers are getting hungry and looking for food!  However, none get

                                    fed until everyone is ready or we would contaminate the tank.  Those that are not "buttoned up"

                                    yet would become infected...kind of like having an opening in the navel.  Shouldn't be much

                                    longer before all are eating.  And what will they eat?  Looks like coffee, smells like fish...the

                                    ground remains of the adult decaying salmon after spawning :)

 

2005 Project Updates

December 16, 2004...6th graders at Kendall Elementary traveled to the local Nooksack Hatchery to harvest COHO eggs from incoming spawners.  The eggs were put in incubation trays.

January 14, 2005...The two school tanks were prepared.  Water was collected from Kendall Creek, gravel and small rocks were used to create a redd, and air tubes were installed to keep the water moving.  Water temperature was established at 48 degrees.

January 19, 2005...the eggs arrived at Kendall.

January 19 - 31, 2005...the eggs are showing the black eye (wall-eyed stage) and signs of a spine.

February 1, 2005...the first eggs began to hatch in both tanks.  Egg casings add debris to the once clear water.  When all eggs are hatched, students will need to recycle about 1/3 of the tank water with creek water.

February 4, 2005...As of today, all of the eggs in our smaller tank have hatched, but only half from the larger tank.  Hypothesis:  the smaller tank has had its light on since the first day the eggs arrived; the larger tank has only had its light on for three days and limited to a few hours each day.  In nature, the salmon eggs would be hiding in the dark, protected redds and exposed to minimal light.

 February 8 - The egg sac is beginning to get smaller, as the alevin take nourishment from it.  We can see their mouths constantly moving.  They remind us of cows "chewing their cud".

February 18 - The salmon are changing colors as the red egg sac gets smaller.  They are turning green, like camouflage.  We are continuing to change about two five gallon buckets every other day, hoping to remove more of the debris from the egg casings.  Our water tests show the pH at 7.5 (a good range), but the Ammonia and Nitrate samples are slightly above 0 ppm.  The water exchange will help.

February 22 - Signs of our first free swimmers!  This is an exciting day - like watching a baby take a first step. Once across the tank, then back to a safe spot is enough to wear them out, though.

March 14...Our fish are so hungry they are starting to nibble at each other. It was hard being patient and waiting for them to "button up", but we had to be very sure their egg sacs were completely gone. So, today the Nooksack Hatchery brought us a container with fish food. The food looks like coffee, but it is really the grounded up adult salmon that died after spawning.

March 25...We do a creek water exchange with about five gallons from the tank several times a week. Today we did water tests to check the tank's quality.  The pH, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Temperature were all within safe zones. 

 March 29...We are feeding the salmon twice a day, and they are really growing. Our only concern is the orangeness of the rocks in the tank. The Hatchery says it is from the decaying salmon in the creek water.

 

 

2004 Project Updates

December 17, 2003 - 6th graders from Kendall Elementary visited the Nooksack hatchery to participate in the collection of COHO eggs.  After taking eggs from a spawning female and mixing it with the milt (sperm) from the male, students put the fertilized eggs into the incubation trays, where their water temperature will stay between 42 and 48 degrees. 

Nick Blair from Kendall helps in the collection process.

Ed Argenio and his assistant from the Nooksack Hatchery show just how large a full grown COHO becomes at the end of the cycle.

January 14, 2004 - 500 COHO eggs arrive at Kendall Elementary to be cared for in our “nursery”. This year, we have two tanks with refrigeration units - one for the east wing and one for the west wing of the school. The east wing has a smaller tank and will house 200 salmon, while the west wing will raise 300. They are currently at the “wall eyed” stage (easy to see the black pupil in the egg), and to our surprise, an egg in each wing hatched out on arrival day! Thermal units are at 800. With the help of our student “bucket brigade”, the water for each tank comes from Kendall Creek.

February 11 and 12, 2004 - There are four 6th grade classes at Kendall this year, so each teacher taught a lesson to all 6th grade students on the water quality and testing techniques. The students learned the importance of these tests: pH, temperature, ammonia, and nitrite.

February 13, 2004 - With the exception of about 12, all of the eggs in our care have hatched out by now. Of those that did not survive, some did not get fertilized back in December and some did not fully develop (this is our second year to get a two-headed fish). Five of them, for example, hatched out but their egg sacs were more orange than red, reducing their oxygen and blood supply. This is the “alevin” stage for the survivors. They will hide in the gravel and get nourishment from their reddish-orange yolk sac for at least one month. The entire school was able to witness the hatching process of the healthy ones with the help of a “flex cam” that is aimed at the tank, but connected to a TV monitor. The enlarged picture allows students and staff to watch the body movements, see the blood vessels, and watch the “breathing” process. Today’s water tests for the west wing:

Temperature: 47 degrees F

pH: 7.2

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Ammonia: .25 ppm

The ideal conditions would be to have Ammonia at 0 ppm. It was slightly elevated because all of the salmon have hatched out and their egg casings are floating in the water, adding protein that will eventually decompose. The students did a water exchange, by replacing 1/3 of the tank with cold, fresh Kendall Creek water.

February 19, 2004 - With the help of the TV monitor, students were able to see the alevin well enough to measure them. Although they are enlarged in the picture, students could at least get a ratio or proportion perspective. For example, on the monitor the pupil measured 2cm across, compared to the eye at 4cm. This information revealed that the pupil was one half the diameter of the eye. On the TV monitor, the egg sac measured 20cm by 8cm, while the head was 13cm by 9cm. That data told students the egg sac took up more space right now on the body of the alevin, and may help students to understand how the salmon appear to be “belly” heavy and not able to free swim in the tank. From nose to tail was 63cm. That data helped students understand that the head and sac are currently almost twice the length of the tail.

February 23, 2004 – Students measured the egg sac on the screen at 17 cm long and 5 cm wide.  The head is now at 12 cm.  The eye remained in proportion at 3.5 cm to the pupil’s 1.75 cm.  Remember that these numbers are only ratios, and not accurate figures.

February 25, 2004 – The egg sac continues to shrink.  On the screen, it measures 13.5 cm long. 

March 3, 2004 - an exciting week, as many of our little COHO are “buttoning-up” and becoming free swimmers. It is a challenge for them to make it from one end of the tank to the other, or to travel from rocks to surface!

April 19, 2004 - The four 6th grade classes released their 500 Coho fry.  Returning them into Kendall Creek, the healthy salmon lingered close to the shoreline for protection against the current and Heron. The students chose a grassy area and also added cedar bows for hiding.

 

During the week of April 19th 6th graders continued to increase their knowledge and understanding of the creek environment by dissecting owl pellets, examining macro invertebrates and planting trees. Assistance from the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association has been very helpful in our educational process, creating a positive survival rate for the Coho.

 

 

2003 Project Updates

October, 2002 -- Students from the 5th and 6th grade classes visited the Nooksack Hatchery to watch the collection of eggs.  After months of incubation, 400 COHO salmon eggs arrived on January 29, 2003 to Kendall Elementary's tank nursery.  On February 11, our first salmon "hatched" out.  As of February 17th, everyone was "free".  Water tests were done to check pH, Ammonia, and Nitrogen and the students walked to Kendall Creek to exchange 1/3 of the tank water.  The alevin stage shows the new swimmers a bit top heavy, because their red egg sac is still attached at the belly.  They will receive their food supply and nourishment from this source for several weeks.  When students look for them in the tank, they find the salmon clustered together in the rocks with heads down and tails up!

February 20, 2003 -- Kendall 6th graders sent an e-mail message to 5th graders at Parkview Elementary in Bellingham.  They introduced themselves and explained that since both schools were raising salmon it would be nice to correspond.  The Kendall students had many questions to ask, like:

                 1.  What kind of salmon are you raising?
                 2.  How big is your tank?
                 3.  What creek do you get your water from?
                 4.  What kind of tests are you doing?
                 5.  Have all of your fish hatched out yet?

February 20, 2003 - 4:00 pm -- The Salmon Cam is operational.

March 3, 2003 --  A representative from the Nooksack Hatchery inspected our salmon and said they were no longer Alevin - which means their bellies have "buttoned" and the egg sacs are no longer visible.  We will wait another week to feed them, however, just to be on the safe side.  If they are fed too soon, the water in the tank becomes contaminated and they risk a bacterial infection.

March 17, 2003 --  First day for students to begin feeding the salmon Fry - which means they are grown-up enough to eat real food.  The food smells fishy and looks like coffee grounds.  In the wild, they would eat floating matter from the decomposing adult fish.  Some are more aggressive than others and come right to the top of the tank for food.  Others stay near the bottom and wait for the floating left-overs.  Students of all ages help out to feed the fish three times a day.  On Friday nights, the custodian gives a late-evening feeding before he goes home at 10:30, just to tied them over until Monday :)  We are all very proud of our "nursery"!

March 19, 2003 --  First day to start a water-changing program.  Because the fish are eating, they are also defecating in the water now.  Tests are done for temperature, ammonia, nitrate, and pH about every other day.  On those days, students have been walking down to the creek to get clean, cold water in metal buckets.  While some students and a teacher are "vacuuming" the tank to remove about 1/2 of the water, the "bucket brigade" is bringing back a fresh supply. 

April 4, 2003 --  Today the Fry are big enough to be set free in Kendall Creek.  The 6th graders will walk down to the creek and each take a turn at depositing the young salmon into a quiet area.  Fir boughs will be placed over the area to protect them from predators, like the herons.  They will stay in the creek as Smolt while their scales grow larger and their tails grow longer.  Eventually, they will become Sea Runs and travel down the creek to the Nooksack River, then out to the ocean.  In about 2 to 3 years, those that survive should be ready to return for spawning.

NOTE:  Of the 400 eggs we raised this year, only seven did not hatch out and only 2 died at the Alevin or Fry stage. 
 

2002 Project  -- Kendall Elementary School     Mt Baker Home Page    Comments? Technology Services