Juvenile coho doing what juvenile coho like to do

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I’m teaching from a hatchery on the Island all week and this morning, as I was getting prepped for day 1, I glanced out the window of the marking building in which we are doing the class, and a silvery flickering caught my eye. The sun was on a drop structure in one of the earthen channels and dozens of juvenile coho were flinging themselves at the little waterfall. It was a mesmerizing sight as their little silver bodies caught the light when they arced through the air and plunged back into the churning water. Eventually I went around back to try to get a few photos.

They aren’t great because there is predator netting over top of the channels to reduce the losses to birds, and 40 rapid fire shots only garnered a few relatively acceptable images through the mesh.

But you get the idea.

I love fish. And I love that I have been lucky enough to have worked for so long in the field that I trained in, as well as get to spend time teaching other people just how cool and amazing fish are.

Not all are so lucky.