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< Back to Currently A few weeks ago, I took a drive to go see the run of salmon this year...
I didn't see too many that day, so I tried again.
I heard the salmon were running into Issaquah still, so I went there, to
see what there was to see.
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Issaquah is a small mining and logging town that is rapidly
outgrowing itself.
Its proximity to Seattle, and the relative ease of getting there -
a short jaunt down I-90 - makes Issaquah the perfect place for
businesses hoping to escape the bustle of the metro area. |
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As a result, Issaquah is growing at an alarming rate.
In the historic downtown area, though... you'd never know it. |
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Right in the middle of town there's a salmon hatchery, one of the
oldest in the country.
Salmon has always been an important part of the local economy, and
to ensure that the natural fish weren't overly depleted, the town
started a hatchery to help supplement the available fish. |
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In the outside fish pens, hundreds of thousands of fish await
release, ready to swim down stream, and into the ocean.
7 Years later, the fish return to the hatchery... on their own.
It amazes me that they can find the one spot where they were
hatched, and even though its a man-made facility, they want to
return to it. |
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They'll even wait outside the gate, which is closed when the
hatchery is too full, and wait, even a couple of days, until the
gates reopen, rather than go somewhere else...
From the gate, the fish swim up the fish ladder, and into the
holding tank
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On the day I went, Coho (the red salmon) and Chinook salmon were in
the tail end of their run
Below, you can see that the anterior dorsal fin is missing... just
a nub remains on the back of the salmon... the hatchery snips this
fin off before release, so you can tell if its a hatchery or
natural fish. |
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So... I FINALLY got to see a decent amount of fish!
< Back to Currently |
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