Frozen

Not yet to be seen
Salmon will hatch here in spring
and start their journey

~ carliewired

-17 C when I left the house to get groceries at 7:30 AM. It had warmed to -15 C when I left again at 11 AM to take photos. It's calm and sunny, so it's quite bearable even with the cold. 

My focus today is Tranquille Creek which enters Kamloops Lake on its northeast side. For many years our local school district has supported a Salmonid programme in our public schools. Classrooms are supplied with salmon eggs which hatch in fish aquariums. It usually requires the dedication of at least one teacher in the school to be den mother while the aquarium is in use. When spring comes, the fry that have hatched are returned to a local creek or river. Many have been returned to this creek. It becomes quite an outing for the children and they gain understanding of the life cycle of the salmon. 

Salmon would have returned to this creek to spawn in the fall. The eggs would be nested into the gravel bottom of the creek to hatch in the spring. Some types of salmon would go on to live in the lake for a period of time. Some go straight out to the ocean. Salmon will grow to adults there and spend 2 to 3 years in the ocean depending on the species. To spawn, salmon return to the streams and creeks where they were born. It is quite an amazing life cycle requiring hundreds of miles in migration.