Salmon Run Finish Line

The State Capitol of Alaska, Juneau, is a busy place to visit. On our one day, we saw an outstanding museum, visited an awesome glacier, took a tram up a mountain, and dropped by the finish line of the salmon run. We will look at Juneau over a few posts, but the salmon ladder came in the morning and will be our first stop.

As a Chicagoan not particularly interested in fishing, I was struck by the photos I took back in Anchorage as the salmon had begun running. I had read about the run and also about the ladders, but had no clear understanding. In Anchorage we had seen dozens of fishermen in the stream, pulling salmon out of the water one by one. But here, in Juneau, we saw how much effort and dedication these animals put into their life-ending spawn. Watching them on the ladder, striving and driving, avoiding little gates and literally jumping the walls to rise to the top, the salmon truly put every ounce of effort into the work. Against the stream, they get pushed back but only redouble their efforts to arrive at the top. The ladder images shows how the salmon must swim to the left, turn and swim to the right, each time leaping the series of walls that slowly but eventually will carry them to the top with thousands of their peers.

There, the harvesters separate the males from the females, and then harvest the milk as seen in the picture. The male had been stunned by an electric shock and poked to access the milk. While he will be dead momentarily, that was his fate in any case and the stunning will make the end peaceful for him. To see male after milk spurting out the last energy of his life, finishing his lifelong odyssey, contributing to the future generations, is completely awesome.

Soon after we reached the finish line along with some of the salmon, we got back on the bus and headed for Mendenhall Glacier. But not without thinking back over what we had seen in the dedication and effort of these salmon. Our blog will arrive at Mendenhall with the next post.