The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), Division of Sport Fish, and the Aquatic Education Program is kicking off the school year with its annual “Salmon in the Classroom” educational event.
This event is for elementary aged students attending schools within the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
An coho salmon egg is undergoing the process of artificially spawning salmon to produce fertilized eggs.
The first day is scheduled for Tuesday, October 10, at Bear Creek near Seward. The second day is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11, at the Anchor River in Anchor Point.
ADF&G staff will be conducting hourly presentations at both locations. Classes will be attending the Bear Creek presentations from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and the Anchor River presentations are scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Classes and/or participants are required to preregister.
During these educational events students will have the opportunity to participate in the egg takes, learn about the Pacific salmon life cycle, egg fertilization, external anatomy, adult and juvenile fish identification, habitat requirements and watersheds.
“They get to see the eggs, they get to see the the salmon hatch and then they get to see them grow throughout the school year and they get to see adults return to when they they return to spawn eggs,” said ADF&G Fishery Biologist Kayla Hansch.
Students attending the Bear Creek egg take will also have the opportunity to learn about the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association’s Bear Creek weir. Each class will take approximately 200 fertilized salmon eggs back to their classroom or school to observe while the eggs develop through different life stages and into free-swimming coho salmon fry by the end of the school year.
“A lot of these schools have aquarium tanks set up in their schools. So after this egg take, they’ll be able to take home a small cup of eggs with them and raise these eggs in their tanks in their schools for students to see throughout the school year. So they can see really the full the full development of a salmon,” said Hansch.
The coho salmon incubation projects are part of the “Salmon in the Classroom” program which teaches students about salmon biology in their classroom throughout the school year. The coho salmon fry from these incubation projects will be released next spring back into Bear Creek or at an ADF&G permitted, landlocked stocked lake.
Schools or classes unable to attend this year’s events will have fertilized eggs delivered to their school. 22 schools are participating in raising salmon eggs this year. Other components of the “Salmon in the Classroom” program include salmon dissections, and elementary schools are invited to attend ice fishing trips and the ADF&G “Salmon Celebration” in the spring.
For additional information, please contact ADF&G Fishery Biologist Kayla Hansch at (907) 260-2919 or by e-mail at [email protected].
