Our First Days at the Fish Hatchery

Our job here at the hatchery is the same as it has been for the many times we have volunteered here. Help with landscaping chores and when the fall salmon run starts, help the fish guys and gals with spawning. The run should start in a couple of weeks and the fish folks are gearing up for the run.

Meanwhile we have plenty to do- assisting the many visitors, deadheading flowers, watering potted plants, watering dry areas in the planter islands, trimming ivy from curb lines and anything else that assists Hugh, the groundskeeper. He supplies gardening tools and a Toro utility vehicle that currently has a 40 gallon water tank and watering wand set up installed on it. We also empty the numerous trash cans that are strategically placed around the campus, police the restrooms and large parking lot. A lot of brochures and informational papers need to be copied and put in the display rack. To keep the place tidy we also use blowers to round up leaves on the streets and public areas and then dispose of them. There’s always a special project going on around here so we never run out of things to do. We are on duty 4 days, 5 hours a day each, then 4 days off. Jil and I never seem to take our full four days off as we get bored. Sometimes we’ll take time to go grocery shopping or take a nice drive up into the forest. We like to visit the nearby lava beds and drive up to an overlook that offers a spectacular view of the southeast side of Mt. St. Helens. We’ll probably do that since we’ll be here a couple of months.

Occasionally the hatchery hosts special projects. A few years ago it was rearing salmon with special DNA for an Idaho Native American tribe. Today its lamprey. Lamprey numbers above the dam have declined because lamprey have a tough time negotiating the dam’s fish ladders. Lamprey are part of Native American’s ceremonial food and the lamprey’s number are depleted above the dam. Today the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (Nez Perce, Umatlla, Warm Springs, Yakima tribes) is using a building as home base to bring in lamprey captured below the Bonneville Dam to store in tanks until enough have been collected. They are then transported above the dam and released. The Commission is hopeful that giving the lamprey a free ride past the dam that their numbers will increase. Lamprey have been on earth longer than dinosaurs at 410 million years, in fact, as long as trees and insects!

Lamprey can be 31 inches long, are often found at sea or often far offshore. They spend most of their lives as larvae (Ammocoetes) which live in fresh water for 3-7 years. The ammocoetes are filter feeders that dig burrows into soft bottom substrates. The undergo metamorphosis and take on the juvenile/adult body morphology. The juvenile/adults have a jawless, sucker-like mouth that allows them to become parasitic on other fish and sperm whales, attaching themselves with their suckers and feeding on blood and body fluids. They typically spawn in a similar habitat as pacific salmon or trout. They construct nests in small gravel in which the females can lay 100,000 eggs. The pacific lamprey is not the same fish as the sea lamprey that has invaded the Great Lakes.

Our older Boxer, Buster, hurt his left hind leg a few weeks ago. We have a supply of doggie meds on board which helped him out. He was almost back to normal in a few days. Then he got sick, really sick. He wouldn’t eat, kept throwing up and just didn’t act normal. A day of that and we took him to a veterinary clinic 20 miles away in Hood River. They took him as a walk-in, sandwiching him in between appointments. I waited out in the car for a couple of hours, then the Vet called to explain that his bloodwork was normal and his abdomin was normal. She gave Buster an injection meant to settle his stomach, two types of meds and said if he didn’t get better she’d recommend X-rays and possibly surgery. We decided against the surgery route as he is pushing near the end of a boxer’s life cycle.

For for 6 days Buster ate very little, mostly canned dog food wrapped around his pills and shoved down his throat. If offered food this certified foodie would just turn his head away. He finally stopped throwing up- a plus! Now just eat dog! Then one morning he took his normal position standing nearby Jil while he and Ollie’s food was being prepared. He ate a little chicken, then a little more later on. We fed him small meals to let his gut adjust to the introduction of food. He is back to his normal chow hound self now. Boy, are we happy he feels well again!

I’ll be writing again in the near future. Hopefully I’ll have more to share with y’all.