Coming soon to a small screen near you: sockeye salmon!
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SourDough News | July 6, 2015
Tongass National Forest Fisheries Biologist Pete Schneider describes how salmon rest in a pool before making their way up Steep Creek where they will spawn. Photo/Teresa Haugh
Steep Creek in Jueau.
Tongass National Forest Fisheries Biologist Pete Schneider travels on the elevated walkway at Steep Creek Juneau, Alaska. Photo/Teresa Haugh
A photo taken by the underwater salmon cam at Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, Alaska, Summer 2014.
Once again, the annual migration of sockeye salmon to Steep Creek near the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, Alaska will be seen by thousands of viewers via live streaming video. Fisheries biologist Pete Schneider and other employees of the Tongass National Forest have continued to make improvements on the first salmon cam that was installed at Steep Creek in 1995 by Eagle Scout Matt Statsny.
Last year, Schneider and his crew upgraded the electrical and camera equipment, and ran new coaxial and power cables. They also drove rebar into the substrate of the creek bed for the camera’s stability. This year, their goals are higher. They have added a second camera, hoping to improve viewing opportunities for visitors at the site and online viewers.
Fish are best seen on the video during the brightest daylight hours, with the biggest concentration of fish in the stream in late-July. The sockeye run winds down in early September, and the coho (silver) salmon enter towards the end of September, along with Dolly Varden.
Schneider, as time permits, enjoys responding to questions left on the salmon cam website by appreciative viewers. His main goal in the project, however, is to educate and inform the public about the unique qualities of fish habitat at Steep Creek. Most importantly, the creek is a natural system with minimal impact from development. The vegetation along the creek’s banks is annually replenished by the nutrients from fish carcasses scattered about by bears and eagles.
Steep Creek and the Mendenhall Lake support all stages of a salmon’s lifecycle. When the salmon return each year, eggs are laid in redds (or depressions) excavated by females in the streambed. After the eggs hatch, they develop into the fry stage, followed by the smolt stage. After about two years rearing in fresh water, the smolt make a spring migration downstream to the ocean taking advantage of the snowmelt runoff. They will eventually return to Steep Creek to begin the process all over, sometimes as long as seven years later.
Want more details about Steep Creek or the lifecycle of salmon? Read previous stories:
- Annual Salmon Migration Continues in Steep Creek on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
- Forest Service Underwater Salmon Cam Ready to “School” Viewers
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