By Grace Maxa, Education Coordinator
Throughout Whatcom County this spring, thousands of students and community members observed salmon growing up from eggs to fry. For the third year, NSEA also collaborated with the Bellingham Public Library to bring a salmon tank to downtown Bellingham. This partnership is an extension of NSEA’s Salmon in Schools program, which provided Whatcom County schools and the Bellingham Library with fully functioning aquarium tanks and salmon eggs in January.
We kicked off the three-month program with the delivery of 250 chum salmon eggs, which brought a lot of excitement and wonder to the children’s section in the downtown Bellingham location. With eyes wide, community members watched as the bright orange eggs were lowered into the tank. Children’s hands shot up as questions bubbled out like waterfalls: “How many are there?”, “Why are they so small?”, “How big are they going to get?”, “I like eating salmon!” Many of these kids and their families continued to stop by the salmon tank week after week to check on their new friends and observe their growth.
NSEA’s education team also joined the library staff for storytimes for preschool and elementary-aged youth. Families participated in activities including testing the water quality to make sure the salmon were healthy, singing songs, reading a picture book from the salmon’s perspective, and crafting their own fish aquarium. These moments of connection with children and their families invited more curiosity about the natural world around us.
Our exciting new event for the year included a collaboration with Friends of the San Juans (“Friends”) and the City of Bellingham. Friends is a local organization whose mission is to bring people and nature together to protect the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea through education, science, policy, and law. Their education team has begun bringing an immersive underwater experience to elementary students. Their large dome creates a planetarium-like encounter to watch salmon large and up close, as they swim from the Salish Sea to their home streams.
Friends brought this dome to the library, where over 170 community members joined us to explore the salmon-filled world around them. Thanks to the City of Bellingham for joining us to share where salmon can be found in local streams, and a tremendous thank you to Friends of the San Juans for bringing their wonderful experience to our community.
These events throughout the spring all built up to the big day: releasing the salmon fry into Whatcom Creek! In March, we gathered with over 400 salmon stewards to celebrate the journey of the chum salmon in their next stage of life. The sun shone brightly after a week of rain as many excited families and groups sent their fry down the salmon slide into the stream. The salmon’s journey will continue as they make their way through Bellingham Bay, out towards the Salish Sea, and eventually the greater Pacific Ocean.
We are immensely grateful to our partners at the Bellingham Library who make this partnership possible. Thank you to the many individuals, groups, and families who joined us throughout the spring season. These small moments might only be a fraction of a day, but the impacts of experiencing salmon up close can transform the future for how we all steward our natural resources.