Getting ready for our new arrivals

We will be setting up the salmon tank soon for this year's fish. I collected water from my stream this weekend to start filling the tank.

Thanks, Peter!

peter, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

None of this would have been possible without Peter from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Looking for fish

BJEbank, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

These third graders saw some other fish in the river that our salmon will meet.

300 fish

dump2, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

After many cups of fish, about 300 were released.

Into the River

dump, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

The students poured their cups of salmon into the river.

Into the cups

scoopbucket, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

Each student had a few fish scooped into the cup of river water.

Union River

union, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

We released the fry into the Union River.

Scoop

scoopBJJ, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

We had to scoop the last few fry out of the tank with a net.

Siphon

siphon2, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

The fish were siphoned out of the tank they have lived in for over two months.

fry

fry, originally uploaded by ecoteat.

The fry just before leaving school for the Union River.

It's amazing to see how much they have changed since hatching two months ago!

And they're off!

Today we had a lovely sunny morning sandwiched between many days of clouds and rain. I don't know if the salmon cared one way or the other, but the good weather made today even more fun for us humans who let the fish go.

After using a siphon to transfer the salmon fry from the tank to a bucket, we loaded up the bus and drove 35 miles to the right spot on the Union River. Once the temperature of the water in the bucket was adjusted to be closer to the river temperature, each person used a paper cup to scoop up some river water, get a few fish put in the cup with a small net, and pour them into the river.

It's amazing to think that at most only a few of these 300 fish will return to this spot to spawn in 4 years. It's also rewarding to know that my students and I did something important to help the population of Atlantic salmon.

Photos coming soon. . .

Adios!

Goodbye, little fishies. This Friday we will let you go. Good luck!

Love,
Mrs. Bebell and her science students

Almost ready to go

We will be releasing the salmon soon. It has been such a great experience to raise them this far from little eggs. They are developing stronger bodies and their egg sacks are almost all used up.



They like to pile up together; most of the salmon are all usually squeezed in the corner of the tank.

Nathan's chart

Coming soon . . .

Adam's illustration

Christina's drawings

Martin's comic strip

Iain's cartoons

Sam's sketch

Brian's salmon story

In this fictional story about a salmon’s life cycle, you will learn many things. One salmon hatches, and its marvelous journey begins.

It was a warm day in a beautiful lake in Vermont. A little salmon hatched in a clump of humongous rocks. After years passed, it started out into the big blue world in search of a mate. As it looked, it left the lake by a stream. It looked up and saw large feet splashing through the water. The little salmon didn’t know of the black bears that pondered these streams, trying to kill all kinds of salmon. It swam quickly, dodging to and fro until it was safe. Up ahead, a large open space was in sight. The Atlantic Ocean.

The salmon looked around and saw a huge ship floating in the water. The salmon was unaware of the danger ahead. It was finally picked up by scientists who were doing a test on salmon. It’s a good thing the salmon wasn’t caught fishermen! It could have been the end of this little salmon.

As the salmon continued it reached an open space in which two large buildings were placed. Many black smoke; a lot worse than the salt water it the waters of the Atlantic. It headed through the toxic smoke and survived. Our little salmon survived, but many other salmon did not.

As it continued on it faced many other dangers; too many to describe here. It lived to find a mate in a beautiful lake, much like where it came from. Then, sadly, it died. Many salmon eggs were laid, though. Our little salmon made it home where many other salmon lay dead. They had mated too, and then died.

There is the life cycle of the salmon for you. Let us be glad we (humans) have a longer life.

Danielle's opinion

My opinion about Salmon{farm-raised and wild}

My opinion about salmon is that people should not eat them. Wild salmon could become endangered if people keep eating them. I think that people should eat other kinds of fish.

Ashley's editorial

When you write a paper, you do research. Usually, in your report you site your source. This act is also know as making a bibliography. Teachers years ago asked their students to make a bibliography because that way the information given could be true. Without saying where the information came from a student could have made up the information that isn’t true.
A problem that has now come into affect is how do we know what information is true. As an example, if four of your friends tell you that practice is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. How do you know which one is the right practice date? This is our problem. Now, if you are smart, you would now ask each of your friends to give you proof. Hopefully, they would show you some sort of notice that was sent out to the players. This would be your proof, and siting your source.

We have another problem. What if your informaion wrong. Going back to your friends a notice could have been for an earlier date. Just like finding information on the internet, the results could be false.

In our projects in class, the topic of sources came up. I’ve been thinking about how we could all agree on what those results of the test. This is what all people do, they to think that if they do it themselves. We run into yet another problem. If everyone is testing and all of the results are varying how do we know what is true. Even if they show their work all salmon might give different results. These results may vary on the salmon type or it could be the way or what was used to get these answers.

I find that all of this mayhem could be reduced if only like two different experiments are done and hopefully match. If not the test should continue in the same way and just recording your findings. With limiting the experiments makes it easier for people to see the results. There might be a margin of error but the error will be reduced with only two people conducting them.

I believe what we can conclude that we need to pay attention to our sources. Try to back up your findings with proof. If you really want to find the true answer, conduct the experiment your self. We you have your results compare them. Make a conclusion with comparing sources to yours.

J. J.'s picture

I drew a nice picture of a salmon. It is still taking in nutrients from its eggsack and in a few weeks it will be able to swim in the free.

Hatching

This is what an alevin looks like as it is hatching:



You can see its head sticking out of the egg. If you look closely you can also see its spine coiled up inside the egg.

Wiggling

These little alevin are fun to watch wiggle around the tank. See for yourself.

It will take a few minutes to load, but it's worth it. This 2 minute movie starts with the view in the tank. Then the fish are filmed swimming around in a white bowl, where you can see them better. Watch closely to see their little hearts beating between the head and where the egg sack is still attached. Also look to see their mouths opening and closing.

Here's a still photo from the movie.

The fish tank

These tiny salmon need their environment to replicate nature. They are staying in our tank until they are mature enough to be released.



The tank is insulated so the water can be kept cold. We will gradually increase the temperature from 34 degrees starting next week to copy the temperatures of the warming streams.

When we need to move the tiny salmon, we use a turkey baster like the one above. It has the tip cut off to make the hole bigger.

two heads

When we first got the salmon eggs and everyone got to observe one egg closely, Ethan insisted that his egg had too many eyes. We knew it was possible for a salmon to hatch with two heads, but I figured we just didn't know exactly what we were looking at.

Sure enough, I looked in the tank today and this is what I found:



One head has two eyes and the other only has one eye.