The Salmon Hatchery

Today we were going to the Bonneville Lock and Dam, but because of the government shutdown it is closed. Instead we went next door to the fish hatchery. Because it is the time of year for the salmon to return to their hatching grounds, we got to see the fish sorter at work. Right before they let the young fish (babies) go into the wild they would put a metal wire in their snouts and cut off their back fin. This helped the fisheries sort them from the wild ones. The machine sorted the wild fish from the ones that were let go. All the fish went through a metal detector to see if it was wild or tame. If the metal detector didn't go off they checked if the back fin was cut off. If it did not pass both of the tests it was let go. The hatchery fish were sold to keep the operation going. The fish left over were donated to a food bank. We also got to see huge sturgeon in a pond. One was 70 years old, ten feet long, and 450 pounds. It was the biggest fresh water fish I have seen in person!