Fish Hatchery

Day 44-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Today, ten other students and I went to Prosser to herd salmon for the fish hatchery. This is how it worked; we took big nets that dragged at the bottom walked them through the water from one end to the net at the other end. It was probably a quarter mile walk. That's a long ways in the water dragging a huge net behind you.

Once we got to the end of the dam, we pulled the net into a small half circle. We then proceeded to catch the salmon with our hands. It was hard work! They were too strong for me and I only caught three, but some of the boys caught on really quick and were practically just dunking their hands in and bringing them up! After we caught the salmon, we put them in bags and sent them up the hill to the fish truck filled with water. Those salmon were pretty heavy and hard to control, especially since my hands were frozen from the cold water. We worked from about 0900 to 1300hrs.

After all  the salmon were caught, our Rec Staff, Steve Gardiner, said there was to be a grand finale. He chose the 4 students who caught the most fish and split them up into two teams. We then walked down to a small pond. In it, there were two 20 year old sturgeon ( a bottom-feeding fish about 13 ft long (at that age) and 145 - 200lbs). Each team was to try and catch one, first team that did, won. No prize, they just simply had the satisfaction of winning.

It was rather amusing watching to boys squeal like little girls everytime the sturgeon swam past. Although, I could understand, it IS a damn big fish. It didn't take long for the two teams to try and work together on one fish, and it took even less time for the other guys want to join the fun and jump in the pond with 'em. There ended up being about seven kids and one pissed off fish wrestling in the water, myself not included.

At the end of the day, we were all cold, soaked, and covered and smelling like fish slime. Yum. As soon as we got back to base, I took a long hot shower and put on some clean, dry, not fishy clothing. All in all, I had a pretty good day.


(Do you guys think the above blog is essay material? It's not really essay format, there are some things I didn't do (like a thesis statement), but I have my writing test tomorrow. I thought it would be good to put my new found skills to use.)

Wish me luck on my writing GED test everyone! I'm going to hit the hay early so I'm fully rested. I'm feeling pretty confident that I will do well. I've studied hard and I think it will pay off. Night all.