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Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

FAIRBANKS — Salmon science can be a little gooey, as the fourth- and fifth-grade students at The Watershed School found out Friday morning.

Watershed students and hundreds more from Fairbanks public schools spent their morning at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual egg take where they immersed themselves in studying salmon eggs from silver and coho salmon at the Chena Pump Recreation Area.

At the egg take, students watched male fish fertilize thousands of previously laid eggs. Fish and Game officers explained the biological process to the students, who examined the eggs and took many back to their classrooms for observation. The eggs will be kept in the classrooms during the winter, then the resulting fish will be released in the spring.

It was a hands-on biology lesson that left a few students eager to learn more and a few others just hungry.

For students like Jarred Maltos and Angela Solomon, it might have been the first time they’d seen a live salmon that wasn’t garnished on their dinner plate or flash-frozen at the grocery store. Both students raised their eyebrows and widened their eyes as they examined the tiny red marvels and the large silver salmon.

“These things are really cool-looking up close,” Solomon said. “I can’t believe how many eggs it takes. It’s no wonder so many people go fishing.” She and schoolmate Skyler Borane peered at jars of fertilized salmon eggs that took a nuclear-red glow in the Friday morning sunlight. Each container contained thousands of eggs.

“I think it’s going to be interesting to watch these things grow over the next few months, but right now it’s hard to believe these little red eggs actually grow into something so big,” John Nordstrand, a fifth grader said.

Students who participated at the egg take were given a first-hand look at the natural wonders salmon undergo each year in the rivers around Fairbanks.

It’s quite an ordeal for salmon to lay eggs, explained the fish and game experts to the students. Salmon are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce, sometimes covering distances of several hundred miles.

In order to lay eggs, or roe, female salmon use their tails to lift gravel and deposit up to 5,000 eggs covering a 30 square feet. Males then swim along and fertilize the roe, then the female covers the eggs with gravel before she moves on to do the same thing again. A female salmon can make as many as seven redds, or groupings of eggs, before her supply is exhausted. The salmon then die within a few days of spawning.

“The idea is to have kids raise salmon in their classrooms in incubators, then release them in the spring,” said Erik Anderson, education associate with Fish and Game. According to Anders, the program has gone on for more than a decade in grades 2 through 8 at the Chena Pump boat launch and in the Delta-Clearwater area.

Contact staff writer Rebecca George at 459-7504.