LIVE!
2026 Coho Salmon Tank
Current CTUs: 708
Approximate Number: 193
Thank you to Copper River Watershed Project for supporting this program!
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This our 7th year doing Salmon in the Classroom, but it's the first year doing daily updates. Each year I have tried doing things a little different so as not to stay stagnant. Learning involves growing, and I want to reflect that in my teaching. One of the problems with the daily updates (on Facebook), though, is our other classroom activities competing for attention or getting lost. To solve this problem, I have created a (FB) page dedicated to our Salmon in the Classroom project. All updates will be shared here instead of in our Kenny Lake Hawks group. I'd love for everyone to continue supporting and following our salmon journey!
March 18, 2026 Salmon Update:
We did 2 feedings today--both about 1/8 tsp. In our observations of them eating, several immediately attacked the food when it was given, but many are still waiting until the food drifts down. After a full minute, fry were still going after the food. Despite that, we decided that we are going to reduce the amount of food given--maybe increase it to 3 feedings--so that the food doesn't remain in the water for several minutes which is what we observed today. We nudged a few fish with the net because they were being awfully still, but they swam away!
March 17, 2026 Salmon Update: We did 2 feedings today-both times around 1/8 tsp. We observed that more of them are going to the top to feed, but most are waiting for the food to drift down halfway. We want our little fry to grow, but we also must balance the health of the tank so this last stage can be tricky to manage. We have had very little mortality this year compared to other years! Today, we also learned more about the anatomy of salmon—thank you WISE!
March 16, 2026 Salmon Update: CTUs 687
We have fry!
We opened our tank and saw that most of the fish were swimming around. We slowly adjusted them to the light then by midday started test feedings. We put a very small amount of food (maybe 1/16 teaspoon) to observe if they swim to the top and if they attack the food.
March 5, 2026 Salmon Update: CTUs are 610, but we estimate they will be around 680 if the temperature continues to stay at 7C. They are swimming quickly around the bottom!
March 4, 2026 Salmon Update: The CTUs are now in the 600s! Our little alevin are getting closer and closer to fry. Their sacs are getting smaller, they are becoming darker and braver--swimming around. They are not grouped together under the pump anymore so lifting it up a little has helped. Another week or 2 and the tank covers will come off for good!
March 3, 2026 Salmon Update: Yesterday we noticed 5 dead alevin. The group likes to huddle underneath pump and pipes, but we don’t necessarily think that was the problem. Deaths are part of the reality of salmon, and so far we have had very few happen. We did lift the pump up a bit to give some extra space for swimming and hiding. Speaking of swimming, a couple little salmon don’t care about what life stage they “should” be at…they’ve decided to start swimming up at the top of the tank already!
Weekend Update: Feb 28/March 1- Happy March little salmon! They are 131 days old today and CTUs are 582. Their life stage is dependent on both numbers. This month will be a big month for them. Their tank covers will come off and instead of wanting dark, they will need the light. Why? Food! Once those sacs are completely gone, they will begin swimming to the surface and we will start feeding them. Of course, that means we will also be cleaning up after them. Where there is food, there will be poop. There’s about 198 little guys, so that’s a lot of poop! Added water to top off the tank over the weekend.
Feb 27, 2026- Salmon Update: We found lots of them hiding under the net. Their sacs are getting smaller and they are looking and swimming more like fry. An early alevin swims in circles because of their food sac. With smaller sacs, they can swim easier. They still like the dark and will stay hidden for a while longer.
Feb 26, 2027-Salmon Update: Upside down alevin is right side up again! We lifted our net that holds the pump and pipes and found a horde of salmon hiding out under it.
Feb 25, 2026-Salmon Update: The salmon are in smaller pockets now rather than larger groups. They are hiding throughout the tank…it’s becoming harder to find them!
Note: Oceana is frowning at one of them resting upside down. He’s okay, though. While he may look stuck, he can get out. But, we will still monitor him.
Feb 24, 2026-Salmon Update: Temperature is staying consistent and the alevin are looking strong. We noticed they prefer corners, striped or white rocks, and many are gathering close to the pump and water circulating tubes. This year I purchased a bag for all the pipes and pump, so the fish cannot swim into them!
Feb 23, 2026-Salmon update: The little ones are looking less like alevin and more like fry everyday—but they are still in the 500s so they have a ways to go! No rush, little alevin! We captured video evidence of alevin in Jaws mouth. The camera went a little wonky on me, so we are editing before posting. Stay tuned!
Feb 19, 2026 Salmon Update: The day has come…a few alevin finally made their way into the mouth of Jaws! That caused some excitement! Quite a few have burrowed their way into the rocks that it looks like they are trapped-don’t worry, they can get out if they want to. I took a picture of our observation log so you can see what we record each day. I write down what they dictate, but they also make comments in their own planners.
Feb 18, 2026-Salmon Update: Temperature units are at 505…they will be fry before we know it! 200 units to go or roughly 30 days! Today some of the littles came for a visit to check out the alevin.
Feb 17, 2026: Salmon Update: When doing our daily observations, we found an error! It was discovered that when we brought the mid-month number from the 1st page of February to the 2nd page, we wrote down the wrong number. Good catch, Michael! We also observed that our thermometer had wandered over to the opposite side of the tank from most of our alevin. It had settled next to the tube that pumps out water from the chiller. Once we moved it to a better spot, we waited awhile then checked the temperature and it was only a difference of a few tenths of a degree. That means we must have excellent circulation! They are checking everyday for some alevin to swim into the shark jaws (celebrating the movie) but no takers yet; they prefer the rocks and corners. The alevin are all looking good! Tomorrow will definitely be a 500 day!
Feb 16, 2026: Salmon Update: They are almost 500! The alevin are all active and healthy looking. We did end up removing the last egg. We were able to get a closer look at him and even though the egg is a nice color, it doesn’t have eyes. We noted the removal on our observation sheet, but we aren’t calling it a dead egg. According to our resident Buck, he can’t be dead if he was never alive…he needed a rooster
Feb 13, 2026: Salmon Update: Today’s observation was about our lone egg. He looks healthy, but after a closer look, we don’t see eyes. We aren’t pulling him out, yet. We’ll check on him again next week then decide. Current CTUs—470.
Feb 12, 2026: Salmon Update: We are still waiting on 1 last egg to hatch. The alevin are forming smaller groups in every corner of the tank. We did some estimating today to predict when their next developmental stage will occur. They become fry around 700 so we did some calculations and are guessing they will become fry mid-March. It will be an exciting time because the covers can come off and we will start feeding them…and cleaning the tank!
Feb 11, 2026: Salmon update: Tank is staying around 7 C so our CTUs are at 456. We only counted 1 egg left, and all the little alevin are doing great.
Feb 10, 2026: Salmon Update: Despite a 3 hour power outage, the temperature on our tank stayed steady. We are at 449 CTUs with an average temperature range of 6.5 to 7 C. The kids wanted to record today as 7.5 because of the outage and the tank stayed closer to the 7 degree mark. At the beginning of the day they estimated that there were less than 10 eggs left, but by the end of the day we just saw a couple. Most of the alevin are huddled together like noodles, but there are some loners spread out around the entire tank.
Feb 9, 2026: Salmon Update: We opened the tank this morning to see lots of little alevin swimming around. We even got to see 1 hatch in front of us! We did remove 2 dead eggs. 2 videos attached to see all the wiggles and a hatcher.
Feb 6, 2026: Salmon Update: Current CTUs are 421.5 with 4 alevin and 196 eggs. The eggs are moving around and all eggs seems to have good coloring—no egg removals so far! It will be fun to see how many hatch over the weekend. Some of the kids are guessing just a few while others think at least 1/4 to possibly 1/2 (all 3 grades have been submerged in fractions these last few weeks)…with our salmon tank, wax museum prep and chess tournament practice, it’s been a busy week!
Feb 5, 2026: Salmon Update: While updating our temperature units today, an egg started bouncing and spinning! We thought it was going to hatch before our eyes, but it landed and stubbornly stayed wrapped up. Meanwhile, 2 little alevin are patiently waiting for the other 198 to join them.
Feb 4, 2026: Salmon Update: Another egg has hatched! Each day we take a few minutes to record temperature units and make observations. Pretty soon we will have lots of little alevin hiding about, but for now 2 hatchers and 198 eggs!
Feb 2, 2026: Salmon update: when we opened our tank this morning we were shocked to see this little guy. Our current CTUs are 394. Usually the alevin stage begins around 400 so we predicted it would happen this week but not today!
We are still working on a way to stream since Nest cam took away that feature, and we need to find something that works with our school network. Until then, we will share photos like this one. 1 egg hatched, 199 to go!
Jan 24, 2026: We are excited to announce the arrival of the salmon eggs for Salmon In The Classroom!
Thank you Copper River Watershed Project, Valdez Fisheries Development Assoc. Inc. in Valdez, AK and Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE) for supporting this program.
Note: You may be wondering why there is a shark and a swimmer in our salmon tank, we are still celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the movie Jaws.
Hatchery Fieldtrip-Oct. 2025
Hatchery: Field Trip to Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery:
Lots of sea lions, millions of salmon eggs and fry, some snow and plenty of smiles—another wonderful experience for our students! A highlight for me was watching them do real life mental math. Thank you to Rob at VFDA and to the Copper River Watershed Project for providing these unforgettable opportunities!
Salmon 2024
On Tuesday, May 14th we released 87 coho salmon into Strelna Lake. The salmon were delivered to us as eyed eggs on Jan 26 and our first alevin emerged 3 days later. Our first fry was caught on camera March 4. Before they were released, several fry were placed into a large container with various critters and observed chasing and testing their first wild meal. As the last fry were released, we sent a thank you to the Copper River Watershed Project and their sponsors. From the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery to Strelna Lake it was CRWP who help coordinate this amazing learning opportunity we get to have each year!
March 12, 2024
We had our first swimmer on March 4 then 2 days later as we watched him swimming around the tank carefree, he got sucked up! We calmly (on the outside but frantically on the inside) started taking apart the filter. Once all of the pieces were apart we found a couple dozen fishes trapped inside. We put them back in the main tank, but they all just floated to the bottom not moving. It was very frustrating because the students were all upset and we've had numerous problems with this filter. The next morning we came back and they were all gone, but we had lots of new swimmers. Thankfully we made it through the catastrophe with just a few casualties. On March 8, we put the filter back together and Amanda from CRWP brought us a few add-ons to hopefully correct these problems we've had. While putting it back together, we found a little guy who had gotten overlooked in the many layers of this filter. He only had a couple tablespoons of water, but he was a fighter! We put him back in and he started swimming around--happy to be out of there! Our tank is currently at around 5 degrees Celsius. When Spring Break is over, we should be able to take off the foam around the tank and begin feeding them!
January 26, 2024
Our salmon eggs were delivered today! They are very close to the next stage in development-the alevin stage which will be the earliest that we have ever had salmon at that stage. Right now their ATU is 381.5 and the alevin stage begins around 400-500. Our tank is around 4.5 Celsius. This means that by next Friday we will have accumulated around 30 temperature units (4.5 x 7 = 31.5) to add to the current 381.5 making their ATU past 400. There could be little alevins within the week!
Keep watch with our salmon cam (linked above) as we begin a new salmon adventure.
Salmon Release 2023- Thank you to Copper River Watershed Project and their Salmon in the Classroom program! Mrs. Hodges would also like to personally thank Kate Morse for all her hard work and dedication to our class.
Salmon Life Cycle - Thank you Chris from Copper River Watershed Project for taking us through the salmon life cycle! Great job by Styrling, one of our Salmon in the Classroom stars, for her participation in this activity!
Salmon Management Bean Activity - Kate from Copper River Watershed Project talked with our class about the different types of fishing and what happens with overfishing. Kate did a bean activity with the kids that showed the different types of fishing in our watershed and how we must balance them to make sure the salmon keep coming back in healthy numbers. Thank you Copper River Watershed Project for the Salmon in the Classroom learning experience!
Our class was featured on NPR!
We are so excited to share what is happening in our classroom with people all around the nation and the world. A special thanks to Kate Morse from the Copper River Watershed Project for all she does to connect us with these amazing opportunities and for the work she does with Salmon in the Classroom.
Feb 15, 2023
Our classroom eyed egg salmon are already Rock n Rollin'!
We've got some Jumpers so "Might as well jump (JUMP)!"
The Adopt-a-Fry video our class created to help support the "Salmon in the Classroom" educational program. The Copper River Watershed Project helps to fund our classroom salmon tank, salmon eggs, salmon release day activities, watershed educational programs, scholarships and so much more!!!
NEW EGGS!
Delivered 2/13/2023
109 days old
ATUs 267
Nov 14, 2022
Salmon Update: Today the eggs are 27 days old and just above 100 atus. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will start seeing eyes in the eggs.
The kids are keeping journals to keep track of the life cycle of our salmon. Each day they write down the temperature, the ATUs, the age, and notes. The egg on the right had turned white so we knew it had not fertilized. We pulled it out, used a solution to clarify it, then used a magnifying glass to look at it closer.
Nov 5, 2022
Solomon Gulch Hatchery Virtual Tour: Salmon raceway round up, egg take, milt take, kidney sampling, and helicopter pick up! We were able to pickup 200 Coho eggs and milt to fertilize for our classroom salmon tank.
Thank you Hatchery Manager, Rob Unger for making this all possible. Thank you Program Director Kate Morse from Copper River Watershed Project for helping to coordinate this event and for our "Salmon In The Classroom"!
October 27, 2022
Our salmon are here! I received a call from the hatchery that it was time for the egg take. Unfortunately, the kids were out of school, so I went to Valdez, took lots of pictures and video to create a virtual fieldtrip. When I came back to school. I brought back 200 green eggs. I watched as these eggs were taken from the fish. At school, I mixed them with the gamete mix to fertilize them and placed them carefully in the tank. They are extremely fragile. Right now I have them hanging in the tank in a makeshift redd (I hung them in a net) so that the kids will be able to see them easier. We will also take a few eggs and use a solution that will clear them and allow us to look under a microscope to see if fertilization was successful.
I know that the kids will be disappointed that they were not able to go, but this will still be a new learning experience as they will be starting from day one of the life cyle!
From the Copper River Watershed Project:
CRWP is representing the Copper River at an international conference!
Our Program Director, Kate Morse, is attending the International Year of the Salmon Symposium with Tommy Sheridan , Alaska’s commissioner on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. He was a participant on an April 2022 research cruise as part of the IYS Conference, and at his urging Kate reached out to all the teachers she works with on salmon education to see if anyone wanted to connect with him from the research vessel.
Jennifer Hodges, awesome Kenny Lake 3-5 grade teacher jumped at the opportunity. She helped her students connect with Tommy while on the research vessel, and set-up a zoom with ADFG Salmon Shark researcher Sabrina Garcia to learn more about the salmon shark aspect of the research. During this conference, and on recent trip to her class, Tommy gave a 20 minute zoom presentation that summarized the research trip and some of the preliminary findings.
Jennifer and her husband Brian Hodges helped to produce a short video presentation that explained these education programs and demonstrated the impact it had on her students in hopes of inspiring the other researchers to connect with youth. The presentation was shown at the conference and received some wonderful feedback!!
"As an educator, I am also learning a lot about the global state of salmon, in particular stresses they face in the marine phase of their life cycle. It’s heavy stuff, and our presentation on youth engagement is a bright spot for sure!" –Kate Morse
October 1, 2022
Last Spring, our class connected with Tommy Sheridan, a researcher participating in the International Year of the Salmon as he was in the middle of the ocean collecting data along with other scientists. It was a very unique and exciting experience! We were also preparing to release our salmon which we do each year as part of Salmon in the Classroom with Kate Morse, Program Director of Copper River Watershed Project. Our class is being showcased at the International Year of the Salmon Synthesis Symposium held in Vancouver, BC on October 4-6 as an example of students connecting and learning. This is an incredible opportunity and I am so proud of my students for being a part of this.
Feedback Kate, Tommy and I have received from the video that was submitted:
"I have to say that is one of the best examples of connecting kids to science that I have ever seen in presentation form."
- Ed Farley with NOAA Fisheries and IYS Synthesis Symposium Organizer
May 18
Kenny Lake School Salmon Release 2022!
There is so much more to Salmon Release Day- We learn about the Copper River Watershed, how water quality affects life, we find insects and other organisms living in the water and we all learn to take better care of our watershed!
Thank you, Copper River Watershed Project - Salmon in the Classroom!
Special Thank you to Kate Morse for organizing this event.
May 16
Video from our salmon tank ---they will be released into Strelna Lake in 2 days!
April 9, 2022
We have reached 700 ATUs. Our salmon fry have started eating every few days. The kids are helping with water changes and managing the water quality, temperature and filtration. The fry are very active. In years past they have tried to hide or stayed at the bottom. These guys speed around and swim to the top frequently. We've noticed the temperature fluctuates throughout the day from 4.9 to 6.3. We switched to a different chiller due to problems with the pump, but the fish don't seem to mind the fluctuations and we haven't lost any of them since the change.
March 20, 2022
There hasn't been much happening in the salmon tank. The little alevin like to hide together in the corners of the tank. They look like wiggling noodles! They are starting to lose their yolk-sacs. So far we have only had 2 losses. One was an egg and another an alevin. When they turn completely white, it is usually a sign that they are not going to survive.
Feb 27, 2022
Most of the eggs hatched over the weekend!
Feb 19, 2022
First alevin caught on video!
Kai, Raiden and Brandon all predicted that the first hatcher would be today. Although we had evidence that the first hatcher was several days ago, this is the first one we have actually seen!
Feb 11, 2022
The eggs are moving and jumping! We at 390 ATU and our tank continues to stay around 3.8-4.0. We should reach 400 on Valentine's Day. I anticipate our first hatchers at the end of the week and all of them should be out by the end of February. We do have evidence of a hatcher-there is an egg sac floating around, but no alevin found.
Feb 4, 2022
Nothing to report on our salmon eggs. We check on them each day and have made guesses as to when they will hatch . We know it will happen in February! Right now their ATUs are 364.2 and they continue to accumulate about 3.9-4.1 each day. When they get to 400-500 they will start breaking out of their egg and entering the alevin stage. (Note: Life cycle stages of salmon are determined by their accumulated temperature and not time/days. Each day we continue adding the daily temperature in Celsius.) We have noticed that the eggs are starting to move around! I have included links under the videos that will allow you to go full screen since the videos are not always cooperating. Thank you , Raiden for noticing this!
Jan 20, 2022
Our salmon eggs have arrived! Due to weather and other unforeseen circumstances, the eggs were delivered around 7pm instead of during the school day. We currently have 800 eggs--600 will soon be transferred to other tanks in the district which meant we had to do a little problem solving to keep each batch of 200 eggs separated. We are excited to start a new cycle of Salmon in the Classroom!
Check out our past Salmon in the classroom tanks below!
May 10, 2021 Swim Free little Salmon!!!
The salmon have left the classroom and the classroom moved outdoors for the day! Students did habitat assessments including water quality and looking at food sources. We set out fish traps, collected insects, measured the temperature, PH and oxygen levels and of course, said good-bye to our fry. Thank you so much to Kate Morse from Copper River Watershed Project for everything you do to make days like this possible for our students!
Strelna Lake Salmon Release Pictures--Round 1!
Salmon in the Classroom
Check out our video journal:
May 1, 2021
Shortly after our last update 6 weeks ago, our tank became a catastrophic mystery. Each week we experienced salmon dying off. Water tests showed that everything was mostly normal--nitrates were slightly elevated and the water was mid-level in hardness. We did water changes more frequently and added more softener to the water as we did the changes. Still, fish were stressed and dying. We learned from Rob, the Hatchery Manager, that the lighter colored fish were stressed. Water tests showed everything was good, so we had a mystery on our hands!
Then disaster struck, in one weekend we lost nearly all of our remaining fish.
We decided to set up our camera to show a different view. Instead of observing the fish, we started observing the tank (and people around it). We solved the mystery and the students learned a valuable and costly lesson about the fragility of an ecosystem.
On our hands we carry a variety of germs and bacteria that can be harmful to young fry. Even deadlier--ammonia from soap and hand sanitizer. Students learned that there are always people who ignore warnings and signs for whatever reason. (Such as "Keep Your Hands out of the Tank"). The consequences for our salmon were deadly.
As of April 30, we have 9 little salmon left out of 200. This is extremely sad and disappointing, but we still have had a good year. We got to watch the little fish break out of their eyed-eggs and become little alevin. We got to see them begin swimming for the first time. We learned how to "read" the health of our tank by observing the coloring of the fish. MOSTLY, we learned how important it is to listen to and follow signs that are displayed and rules that are given to us not because people don't want us to have any fun, but because they are there to protect someone or something. Rules are important.
May 10th was supposed to be our salmon release day. At this point, it may be our salmon burial day. Our last few fishes--the strongest ones that have survived--as they have died, we are naming them and preparing a little fish-box for them. The kids will paint rocks and create a Memory Garden. A lesson that will never be forgotten.
March 19, 2021
ATUS: 653
Our little fry are eating and the tank cover has come off! We lost a few in the filter, but the rest are strong and swimming free !
Salmon at the Disco
Welcome to our
Welcome to our
Salmon Circus!
Salmon Circus!
March 5, 2021--ATUS 569
Our babies are swimming! As their sacs disappear, our little fry begin swimming to the top of the tank in search of food. We've counted about a dozen so far! Soon we will be able to take the outside cover off of the tank, let the light in and begin feeding. Of course, it also means water changes!
Feb 12, 2021---ATUS 451
Almost all of the eggs have hatched! Everyday has been exciting to watch as the tank is ever-changing. The little alevins (baby salmon) are constantly on the move looking for places to hide or groups with which to gather with as they bury their heads into the gravel. It's amazing to think that just a few weeks ago they were little tiny eggs and in a few more weeks will be looking more like fish and begin swimming around looking for food! They grow up so quickly!
Here are some fun videos from our Salmon Nest cam...we will post an update tomorrow about how our salmon are doing and their current development!
Feb 5, 2021
ATUS 407---This week the salmon eggs have been very active! Each day we watch the eggs through our live feed camera and can see them bouncing and dancing around. When we uncovered our tank on Friday (Feb 5) we found 1 little egg that hatched! We can't wait to watch more and more salmon make their way from the eyed-egg stage into the alevin stage.
Jan. 29, 2021
ATUS 371---The salmon are still in the eyed-egg stage and remain in the dark except during brief moments for observation. You can start to see more than just eyes in those little eggs! The tank temperature is at 5 degrees Celsius. We should start seeing the next stage of development beginning the first or second week of February!
Jan. 20, 2021
Our salmon are here! Today, 200 Coho salmon were delivered into our tank! They are currently 99 days old and their ATUS is 320. This number is what determines how quickly or slowly they move from one life developmental stage to the next. Right now they are in the eyed egg stage and will not hatch into the alevin stage until around 400-500. Our tank temperature is 4 degrees Celsius. Their ATUS will go up 4 each day. We are excited to be involved and care for our little salmon. Thank you to Kate Morse from the Copper River Watershed Project for helping get this set up!
Solomon Gulch Hatchery-----Valdez, Alaska
Watch the salmon run as they make their way up the fish ladder and into their spawning grounds (hatchery). This video was taken Aug. 15, 2020.
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