Monday, January 30

A fourth grader from Mrs. Breedlove's class took this wonderful video of our alevin today. You can see that their caudal (tail) fins are developing and they are a definitely longer than they were last week. 

Thursday, January 19

This video, from Tuesday evening, shows an alevin who is less than a day out of its egg. Its body is transparent enough for us to see its heart beat.

Wednesday, January 18

More alevin hatched in our redd today. The salmon emerge tail-first and basically wiggle out of their casing. Their substantial yolk-sacs can make that a little difficult, but very fun to watch. 

This video was taken by a student during our morning 21st Century program.

Tuesday, January 17

In this photo, taken by a fifth grader in Mr. Harrington's class, we can see our first alevin of the year. If you look carefully, you can see its brain through its transparent head. Most of its yolk sac is obscured by the gravel around it. To the right of the alevin, we can see the face of another salmon still in its egg casing. The golden iris is an indicator that it will be hatching soon.

Friday, January 6

Tri-Cities schools, including Finley Elementary, receive all our chinook salmon eggs from Priest Rapids Hatchery on the Columbia River. The hatchery is located next to Priest Rapids Dam. That dam generates electricity for our region.

Our salmon eggs and the milt used to fertilize them were collected on November 28, 2022.

Wednesday, January 4

Today our salmon eggs arrived. One hundred little round pink eggs. They arrived from the hatchery at 1pm via a volunteer with the Benton Conservation District.