Salmon in the Classroom
Project Diary
Name
Class
School
1
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.
2
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.
3
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.
What do you have to remember each day when you are looking after
these Salmon eggs?
How will you make sure the water is clean ?
How will you make sure the temperature is correct ?
4
Draw a picture of the tank in your classroom.
5
Draw a graph to record the temperature and the water. Each hour you
must test the water temperature and the water
6
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 !
7
Draw a picture of the view the salmon have from the tank inside your
classroom.
Describe the inside of the tank
8
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. Manmade pollution from sewage works, factories or farms kills them by taking
away their much-needed oxygen and damaging the water purity.
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10
What do you think are the greatest risks in your river for salmon eggs?
Draw a picture of each one.
What do you think could be done to minimise these risks to the salmon eggs ?
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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.
During which stage of the lifecycle do you think will have the greatest
losses from predators? Pollution?
12
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.
13
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 :
14
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.
15
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.
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ACTIVITIES
Poetic Moments
What does your local river look like ? Is there trees near the river?
Does the river flow fast or slow?. Try to describe it to someone who
has never seen it before? Use some of these words to help.
open noisy calm peaceful safe dangerous pretty
Write words that describe your local river inside the wavy lines.
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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
S
A
L
M
O
S
A
L
A
R
L
M
A
S
R
O
S
A
A
L
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Draw a picture of your local river. What plants and animals might you see when you
are there? Draw them in your picture? After your visit with your class, try and add more
plants and animals that you saw.
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
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.
PICTURE OF GRAVEL WITH EGGS (PAGE 13 OF TEACHER’S GUIDE)
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Salmon GAMES to PLAY
Egg – Alevin – Parr – Smolt – Kelt – Grilse
Where do we feed?
1. Draw each one of the salmon stages on card, copying from
the illustrations in your diary.
2. Cut each one into cards.
3. One side of the classroom is the river and one side is the sea.
4. Hand out a card to each person.
5. On the word GO, each person must run to their habitat.
6. Smolt can be either river or sea.
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More Class games !
The Salmon Challenge
You will be designing and making a salmon shaped survival board game
A. Designing the board game
1. Using a large piece of paper, draw out a circular board game, with
spaces to move around the board.
2. On the board decide where the river is. This is the start and the finish. Draw
the river on the board.
3. At certain spaces the players will change from eggs–alevins-parr-smoltskelts-grilse. Choose where this will be on the board and draw it on.
4. Decorate the rest of the board showing the journey that the salmon will
take.
B. Salmon Challenge cards
1. Write up some salmon challenge cards from the information you have in the
diary. These may be survival tips or survival threats. You must decide what to
write on the card and whether the effect would put the fish forward two
places , back two places, back to the start etc. Illustrate the cards.
2. Split the cards into piles (threats and tips)
3. Every six places write on your board “pick up a survival tip”. In between these
write “pick up a survival threat” .
C. Playing the Game
1 You will need a dice to play this game.
2 Whoever rolls the highest number goes first.
3. The object of the game is to start at the river , go all around the board . The
winner is the first one home to the river (right around the board).
21
Food Chains
Plants, animals, and their physical surroundings are often dependent on
each other. Food chains are a simple way of thinking about how these are
related. Nearly all food chains start with the sun. Name the food you have
just eaten and see if you can complete the chain back to the sun.
For example
milk….cow…grass…sun
crisps…..potatoes…..sun
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.
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** 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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