Steelhead Trout Release

This is the insulated refrigerated tank in the 2nd Grade classroom where my lovely wife teaches. This is where the steelhead trout eggs hatched on the blue gravel and they grew into smolts, about a half to three quarter inch long.

Time for the little smolts to go to the American River. There they will grow and drift down to the Pacific Ocean.

Here are the smolts in a container ready for the trip to the river. The blue gravel from their tank was captured in the little net when we scooped the fish out of the tank.

Here is Franco pouring the fish into the river as a couple of local boys look on. Hopefully the smolts will hide under the log and the rocks, then start working their way down the river. With luck, they will go to the ocean and come back to this river to spawn (reproduce).

That red arrow points to a little shadow where one of the smolts is. The rest are hiding under the log and rocks. The blue gravel marks the spot where they were poured into the water, near the Howe Ave Bridge, American River, Sacramento, Calif.

It was a good day!