Salmon Journey

Today, my friend, Lindy, and I decided to take a salmon journey. After a good lunch we wandered through Renton looking for our first stop. We were not lost, simply exploring. Eventually we did end up at Riverview Park viewing site. We put on this silly glasses which are polarized to help you see the salmon. The river was mostly full of sockeye. They were full of life and you could see them splashing as they competed for spawning spots. Many of salmon will continue much further up the river. Most of the river bottom was dark but where the redds were the river was much lighter. I was amazed to realize there was a big Chinook right under me. Without the red color of the sockeye it blended in so well that neither Lindy or my camera could find it.

Lindy looking for Salmon

Polarized Glasses to help us see the salmon
Aren't I cool?

Fun fact -Spawning female salmon lay an average of 3,000 eggs in a season, in up to five nests. Salmon face many challenges to survival throughout their life cycle, including silt smothering the eggs, predators, pollution, harvest, oxygen-poor water, high water temperatures, and loss of habitat. Only one or two salmon (1/10 of 1%) from an egg nest make it back to their home streams to spawn. source

Look carefully, there are salmon.
The lighter area is the redd they have made.

Next we were off to Cavenaugh Pond. When we arrived they were passing out glasses again. There was an information both and naturalists. We then walked down a path that went along side the Cedar River. Mostly the bushes were too high to see the river, but we got peeks at both the Cedar and the salmon. When we reached the end of the trail the Department of Fish and Wildlife and set up a fish sorting operation. There were so many salmon! They were pulling out some sockeye and taking them up to the fish hatchery at Landsburg. On that day they'd seen a Chinook and also an early Coho. The fish biologist would stand in this cage and catch the large (and annoyed) salmon with a net. The ones they kept for the fish hatchery were placed in a black rubber bag and carried to a nearby truck. I guess we were really lucky to get to see this in action.

ha ha... I got a picture of Lindy with the glasses

We spent quite a bit of time at Cavanagh. The salmon weren't as lively as at a first stop. Many seemed to be building redds there and many seemed to just be resting. As we were standing there a female sockeye drifted down and died right in front of us. I hadn't really expected it to be quite as sad as it was. I felt sorry for the fish. I also found them more beautiful then I expected. It's amazing to think some of those salmon will continue for many more miles before spawning

The weir where the fish get stopped.
Look carefully, there's quite a few fish

The fish biologist climbing out of the sorting "cage"

The salmon truck, getting loaded with "boys" and "girls"

The light color is a fungus.

After that Lindy said we should stop by the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. It made our journey go full circle since we began in Issaquah. It was very busy. Unlike the Cedar River most of the Salmon were Chinook with some Coho. Once again they were very lively and they kept trying to jump across the little damn. The gate to the fish ladder was closed and occasionally one of the salmon would bang hard against the gate. Lindy says she's seen a lot more fish there but I was still impressed. All in all it was a fun day.

There were a lot of salmon (click on photo to see better)

It was mostly Chinook salmon at Issaquah but I did see a few Coho

Fun Fact - Spawning female salmon lay an average of 3,000 eggs in a season, in up to five nests. Salmon face many challenges to survival throughout their life cycle, including silt smothering the eggs, predators, pollution, harvest, oxygen-poor water, high water temperatures, and loss of habitat. Only one or two salmon (1/10 of 1%) from an egg nest make it back to their home streams to spawn. source

I couldn't resist the shot through the window.
These fish are headed up the fish ladder

Isn't it amazing how they can jump!