fieldtrip to the salmon fish hatchery

 This week I went with Jacob's class on a fieldtrip to the local salmon fish hatchery!  Every fall the salmon swim around 52 miles from the ocean back to Issaquah Creek to spawn and then die!  Third grade is the year of the salmon and Jacob loves to tell me all sorts of random salmon facts.

trying to jump up the ladder

Jacob said the gills felt like feathers.

We were lucky to be there on the once a week spawning day, where they kill the fish and cut them open to get the eggs out.  So there were big barrels of dead fish waiting to be sold at auction.  They cut open a male and squeezed out the "milk" that the males use to fertilize the females.

 Yay for third grade!!