Salmon Program

2025 Salmon Program Timeline! Check back often to see the salmon updates!

January 9th - Our salmon eggs arrived and are already getting comfortable in our salmon tank.

Soon Our salmon eggs will start to hatch. If you look closely, you’ll notice a gold rim around their black eyes. It’s a sign that they’re about to hatch out of their eggs and they have reached the “sac-fry” stage. At this stage, they’ll stay near the gravel and live off the nutrients in its sac. You may also notice that there may be bright pink and opaque eggs. The eggs do not survive this stage and will be removed from the tank. Just like in nature, many of these salmon will not make it to the next stage. The strongest ones will survive.

February - The salmon will become alevin!

March - The salmon will become fry! They will now be swimming all around the tank. The students will now have to feed our salmon three times a day!

March - Our students will submit names and vote on their favorite name for our school of salmon!

 

Where can you see even more salmon?

There are a few local places that you can visit now to watch the salmon arrive: Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in Issaquah and the Ballard Locks Fish Ladder in Ballard, Seattle 

If you’re lucky (and patient), you may be able to find salmon in our local creeks as well. Our Wilder Students have been releasing salmon fry into Colin Creek behind our school in hopes they’ll return to spawn. 

Here are some useful links to learn more about the salmon of our community!

• Issaquah Fish Hatchery  - https://www.issaquahfish.org/
• Ballard Locks Fish Ladder  - https://ballardlocks.org/fish-salmon-ladder.html
• Wilder Salmon Program  - Salmon Program – Laura Ingalls Wilder PTSA
• Local viewing areas: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/779f2239705a42fba71f198d958da479/?data_id=dataSource_2-Salmon_viewing_sites_8034%3A7