The Hatchery with Scouts!

We had the opportunity to go to one of the hatcheries here in Anchorage.  I was quite fascinated and thought that I would share.  As part of the 2nd grade curriculum here all kids are taken to the hatchery to learn about the life cycle of a salmon.  They even send the kids home with eggs the watch hatch in the classroom.  So while the rest of us learned about the butterfly...my kids are learning about the salmon. 

The hatchery was developed by the first ever fish culturist in anchorage.  They use these hatcheries mostly to replenish the lakes in the surrounding areas.  However, they are also growing salmon to send out to the ocean.  So there are two types of fish they "grow".  Fish with three chromosomes that will never spawn and those that have two chromosomes that will return and spawn.  So how do they get three chromosomes.  They heat the water at a certain time in development that re-captures the second hyloid. 
This makes them infertile and unable to reproduce.  This means that they can spend more of their time and energy growing and not mating. These are the fish that they use to replenish the lakes. 

The other fish that are chromosomally normal are grown in one  year to be the size of a 5 year old.  They are fed 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  Some are tricked into thinking it is time to swim out to the ocean by staying in darkness all day.  Others are given testosterone to make them males.  Apparently, all fish are female naturally in the hatcheries so they have to treat some with testosterone to get males. 

So they keep the millions of eggs in these bins and they go through the stages of development.  Then they transfer them to circular tanks that are truely and engineering miracle.  They reuse water and keep them at different temperatures also.  Amazing.  Most salmon prefer to be at 13 degrees.  Arctic Char like to be at 6 degrees. 

So here are some of the pictures I took.  I am just amazed that this is people's jobs:  To grow fish at a rapid pace without any problems.  And if you do mess up...it is usually a  few year repair.


The tank holds about 40,000 fish.  Food comes from the top. Water circulates from one to the other and waste is taken from the center, filtered and returned.  It is so neat. 



These are more of the tanks.  I am just amazed at the massive amount of engineering to make this all work so well.  To have them fully explain the ability of the facility it is amazing.


The fish begin as eggs taken from the mom and fertilized by the dad.  They are usually buried in the rock of the stream.  Then they get an "eye" form to develop.  Then they get thier little fish bodies with the yolk sac dangling from them.  They usually stay in the streams until they mature a bit more before heading out to the ocean. 

I love learning about this stuff!  I could have stayed there all day.