Imagine a Life of Travel and Adventure, of Voyages to Sea and Far Off Arctic Lands

Salmon in the Classroom

Project Diary

Name

Class

School

A Quest for Atlantic Adventure

Imagine a life of travel and adventure, of voyages to sea and far off Arctic lands. Imagine swimming to Greenland when you’re only a few years old. Imagine not a comic book superhero, but the humble Scottish salmon.

Not far from your school is a river which is home to these brave little fish whose loyalty to their birth place takes them on the most extraordinary adventures, but brings them back from the ocean to start the cycle all over again.

That life cycle is one of the most amazing in nature and is about to begin right here in this very classroom.

Now you can play your part in this fascinating and still somewhat mysterious process which sees the tiniest little eggs develop into one of nature’s strongest athletes.

In the Beginning There Was a Little Egg…

In fact there were about 6000, and they were buried deeply by their protective mother in a nest in the river bed known as a redd. Now, when

did you last notice a river bank in your classroom or, for that matter, a fussy mother salmon digging holes with her tail? So how can this marvellous lifecycle begin here in an ordinary room in an ordinary school?

It can because some extraordinary helpers here are going to transform themselves into parent salmon and use the magic of technology to recreate the riverbed right here.

A Wizard of an Idea

It will take more than a wave of a magic wand to change these little eggs into salmon, but with a lot of dedication from you and a specially designed tank you can create the very conditions these tiny eggs need to hatch.

This new home from home is a hatchery. You may not think it would be your idea of a cosy home, but as long as you’re careful the eggs are going to love it. I think you would be asking for the heating to be turned up if you were to move in with your new friends the salmon, but they like the water always to be colder than 10 degrees centigrade.

Draw a graph to record the temperature and the water. Each hour you must test the water temperature and the water

Survival of the Fittest

Why must the water be so cold? The temperature in your classroom tank, like all the other conditions, must be as near as possible to that which fish enjoy in a Scottish river in winter. The tank will have gravel in which to bury the eggs, a constant stream of cool running water to keep the water cool. It will be your job to make sure every day that the temperature is not too high, that the pump inside the tank is keeping the water moving and, most importantly, that the gravel has not been disturbed.

As there are so many eggs, some are bound to die, and that can’t be helped. However, to keep the water clean for those which survive, the dead ones must be removed regularly. Again, this is your job and you must find a cunning plan for how to remove the dead eggs without disturbing the healthy ones. After hatching there will also be lots of egg shells around the tank , so make sure you clean it out !

It’s Wild Out There

Frankly, it’s like placing a packed nursery in the middle of a lion’s lair. There are predators out there and they are out to get those poor little eggs. She who dares wins in nature and if the mother salmon finds a good, deep spot where she can hide her little ones they may avoid the dangers which are all around them.

Predators with a taste for salmon include: other fish such as pike, perch, eels and trout; birds such as heron, kingfishers and dippers. But sadly the risk to the eggs in the wild lies not only with their hungry neighbours.

If their river floods badly or dries up the eggs can be either washed away from their redd or stranded out of water. Either of these situations will kill the eggs as they can not stand to be moved so young, nor can they survive without the oxygen they get from the water.

Unfortunately, humans also play their part in harming salmon eggs. Man-made pollution from sewage works, factories or farms kills them by taking away their much-needed oxygen and damaging the water purity.

When Is An Egg Not An Egg?

When it turns into an alevin of course. Soon after you have transferred your eggs to the tank you will witness the wonder of nature for yourself. Alevins will hatch in the gravel, but be sure not to disturb them as they prefer to stay there for a few weeks feeding from their yolk sac and to developing further before venturing out into the big bad world.

So when are alevins not alevins? When they’re fry or parr or smolts or kelts or grilse or salmon. As we turn from babies to toddlers to kids to teenagers to adults, so salmon grow through similar life stages.

When The Hardest Word Is Goodbye

A few weeks after your eggs have hatched, the real adventure begins. After all your care and attention your precious little alevins are ready to make their own way in the world. However, your responsibilities don’t stop here. It is up to you to check out thoroughly their new home. Remember the dangers faced by fish in the wild. You may wish to measure the flow of the river, the colour, smell, temperature and depth of the water… and then it’s goodbye.

Missing You Already

About three months after you said goodbye to your alevins you’ll be back to say hi. As caring ‘parents’ you’ll be keen to see how they’re getting along without you. You can imagine this is no easy task in a fast flowing river exposed to the full force of Scottish weather.

Again the magic of technology can help – you are going electrofishing. This means an electric current is put into the water stunning the fish for a short time. As you can imagine electrofishing can be dangerous for people so it will only be undertaken by people who are experienced. They will collect the fish and put them in buckets. You can then hold them and measure them to see how much they have grown. Hopefully you’ll find some salmon, but it’s also fascinating to see who else is living in the river. You may catch eels, trout, insects or other creatures. There will also be a chance to check on conditions in the river. Note what you discover in this table.

Draw a table :

Bon Voyage

Your salmon are now free to go their own way. But which way is that?

Nobody knows for sure the exact route a Scottish salmon takes, but what we do know is that they spend between one and five years in rivers and lochs before heading out to sea. Scottish salmon travel to the deep, cold Arctic waters off Greenland as well as around the Faroe Islands. Take a look at this map to see just how far these tough little creatures swim.

The most fascinating thing about salmon, however is the extraordinary fact that they always return to the river in which they were born to lay their own eggs and start the cycle all over again.

So, What’s The Problem?

Long before there were humans in the world salmon were doing their extraordinary thing. Now there is a threat to all that - and it’s us. Many of the major threats to salmon come from man. Salmon which have swum all the way from Scotland are often caught in nets in the sea off the Faroe Islands and Greenland. If they make it back home a number of illegal fishing methods lie in wait such as poachers nets blocking their way.

However, some salmon will not even survive to set out to sea. Their rivers are not the perfect environment they once were. Unfortunately they may be damaged by pollution such as acid rain or chemicals. Many predators eat large numbers of salmon all through their life.

During this project you will be told how we can all make our rivers cleaner, safer places for the salmon, but also for us to enjoy.

ACTIVITIES

Poetic Moments

Write words that describe your local river inside the wavy lines.

Poetic Moments Salmo salar

Every plant and animal on earth (that has been discovered!) has a Latin name. These names were devised so that scientists all over the world would know what each other were talking about! The ancient language of Latin language crosses all the linguistic boundaries in the world. We give plants, insects and animals local names but wherever you are in the world the Atlantic Salmon is called salmo salar.

You could use these shapes to write your own poems about salmo salar.

The River

L M

A O

S S

R A A

In the Beginning There Was a Little Egg…

In fact there were about 800, and they were buried deeply by their protective mother in a nest in the river bank known as a redd. Now, when

It can because some extraordinary helpers here are going to transform themselves into parent salmon and use the magic of technology to recreate the riverbed right here.

PICTURE OF GRAVEL WITH EGGS (PAGE 13 OF TEACHER’S GUIDE)

Salmon GAMES to PLAY

Salmon Food webs.

Sun

River bank plant life

**Land dwelling insects- fall into water

Dipper

Aquatic plant life

*Aquatic insect life

Kingfisher

Salmon eggs

Heron

Eels

Pike

Salmon parr

Perch

Trout

Salmon smolts

Otter

Sea fishing/humans

*Aquatic insects might include: mayfly, caddis fly, dragonfly, damselfly all of whom spend the first stages of their life living in freshwater before pupating and emerging as flying insects.

** Land dwelling insects that depend upon the river bank vegetation will include caterpillars and many other types of flying insect larvae which may fall into the water, often when beginning to emerge as flying insects – hence the popularity of fly fishing to catch salmon and trout!

Activity: using stickers or cards with these fish, mammals, plants or insects written on them form a food web using string as energy pathways. Remember to emphasise the sun as the source of all energy.

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