Salmon in classrooms in my corner of the world

Salmon are a native fish in California. They hatch from eggs in creeks and swim down to the river, then out to the ocean. There they grow for a couple of years and return to the river where they were born.

My lovely wife is an elementary school teacher (5th grade) and her classroom is designated to receive eggs from the "Trout/Salmon in the Classroom" program. She has a special refrigerated fish tank provided by the fishing sport association and the fish eggs are provided by the Dept of Fish and Game.

The classroom received 30 eggs, which all hatched and after several weeks, there were 30 fish almost an inch long that needed to go to the river. Since the fish eggs are from the Feather River which feeds into the Sacramento River, we had to drive the fish to the Sacramento River (about 10 miles) to be released.



This is the boat ramp at Discovery Park leading to the Sacramento River. It's almost dusk, the sun is going down.


This is the little traveling tank with 30 of the one inch long salmon.




Here they go, hopefully to grow big and strong, then return to spawn and lay eggs for more fish.

This is the first time the classroom has received salmon eggs. Usually they receive Steelhead trout eggs from the river close to our house, the American river, and the children get to go on a little field trip to release the fish.

It's harder to get permission to go to the Sacramento River, so we had to take the fish ourselves.

So that's another little piece of life in my corner of the world.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios
Sacramento, Calif.

edited to correct: We released salmon into the river. The steelhead trout eggs are coming in February.