salmon run trip, 15 October 2005

Went with the bio club and honor society last Saturday to the Cedar River in Renton (southeast of Seattle) to see the salmon run. It turns out to be a crummy year for salmon on the Cedar River, actually; about 300,000 were expected, but the fish folks have only seen 80,000. Some of them refused to commit to a guess about the reason, but everyone mentioned global warming. Lake Washington is one degree F warmer this year, which is significant if you're a cold-water fish species.

( Details and pictures )

I was hoping for the RIVER OF SALMON you see in the nature shows, really, and I didn't get anything like that. Still, pretty nifty stuff, and it was fun to hang out with other bio geeks.