A trip to the fish hatchery with Manny and...the truck gets new tires.

 On Wednesday Manny took us out to a fish hatchery north of Coos Bay but Connie and Mitzi stayed home because Connie is still sick.  Look at Mitzi curled up keeping Connie company. We didn't get a real early start as Eric had an appointment to get new tires on the truck at 10:30.  Eric dropped the truck off and then we were away to the fish hatchery.

 We were stopped at a light and Eric commented that he wondered why the logging trucks here only have two axle trailers.  The trucks at home have three drivers on the tractor and four or five on the trailers.  Obviously we must carry much bigger loads.

 Here we are at the Morgan Creek Fish Hatchery.  It was a long way out into the country and we wound up and down many winding roads to get there.  Manny showed us more of the countryside on our way there...he's a great tour guide.

 Manny and Eric are having a look in the trailer.

 Turns out that we missed the whole thing.  The fish had the eggs and sperm removed and when we got there it was all over.  These are Chinook salmon and more will come but first they need rain because the creek is too low and they are waiting in the ocean.  The carcasses are put back into the river to feed the other inhabitants.

From the net.... In 1981, Bill Bradbury from Bandon was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives.  During his freshman year he successfully led the passage of legislation to establish the Salmon Trout Enhancement Program (STEP).  This legislation established ten STEP districts in the state of Oregon, among them, our Tenmile, Coos, and Coquille District.  This ground breaking legislation recognized volunteers could play an important role in restoration of stocks of salmon and trout, and since that time thousands of local STEP volunteers have assisted Oregon’s fisheries throughout the state. 

In our local Tenmile, Coos, and Coquille STEP District, volunteers have donated money, materials, equipment, and countless hours of their time and labor.  Over several decades STEP volunteers have specifically and personally  completed stream habitat restoration work, conducted surveys, helped with education projects that collected, hatched, reared, marked, and released several million salmon and trout eggs—all because they care about fish and fish habitat.

The same year STEP was legislated and the Tenmile, Coos and Coquille District established, a young, forward-thinking biologist fresh out of Oregon State University was hired by the Department of Fish & Wildlife to administer this program.  Tom Rumreich, with his vision and energy, immediately began working on the goals of STEP:

• Rehabilitate and improve natural habitat and native fish stocks.
• Insure that the harvest does not exceed fish population’s reproductive capability.
• Provide for citizen volunteer participation to achieve the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish management objectives.
• Create and support public education regarding fisheries.

As the fisheries enhancement programs got off the ground during the late 1980s and different entities emerged, the tracking, maintaining, and handling of funding became difficult.  It became apparent that the various local programs needed unified guidance, and a way to centralize monies for collection and distribution as a non-profit organization.  In 1991 a small group of supportive community leaders and representatives from the various STEP groups established the Coos County STEP Commission.  This commission is now composed of fifteen trustees who manage monies, submit grants, and facilitate the distributions to the Southwestern Oregon STEP District programs.

 Here Eric is chatting to one of the volunteers who has been working here since the mid 1980's.  A very interesting man who had no issue with spending time telling Eric all about the facility.  As we come from a salmon fishing area (Terrace, B.C. and the Skeena River) they had a good chat.Turns out this fellow had been up to Alaska and driven right through Terrace.  Small world.  Eric is knowledgeable about salmon so they had a good talk.

 This is the warm room where they keep all the waders.  Today a grade five class of students were helping remove the eggs and sperm from the salmon.  The fellow that was talking to Eric said that over the years 5 students have gone on to become marine biologists.  If you educate the children and let them be "hands on" they understand and become advocates for fish and wild life.

 All the fish in these pictures came from this hatchery except for one and that one was a halibut which obviously didn't come from here.

 In the spring the grade six students come to help mark the salmon by cutting off a fin so they can be identified when they reach waters in the north up by Alaska.

 Not just fish pictures on these walls!

 It's cold and Manny is warming his hands.

 The teachers and volunteers are trying to continue educating the students.  It was a pretty boisterous area!  They were eating sandwiches and wrestling at the same time....funny.

 If you zoom this in there is a lot of interesting information.

 Heading back to Coos Bay.  This whole area used to be full of dairy farms.

 Looking back at Coos Bay from another side of an inlet.

 Manny stopped by our friend George's house but he wasn't home.  What a deck and....

 ....what a view.

 Next stop .....fresh oysters for dinner.

 That's quite a pile of oyster shells.

 They are farmed right here.

 We picked up a quart of fresh oysters for dinner and then we were off to find lunch before heading back to pick up the truck.

 Big, big bridge.

We stopped for lunch where Manny had a shrimp salad with local bay shrimp and Eric and I had taco salads.

 Beautiful old buildings.

That's a beauty.

All in all a great day.  A lovely day trip, a good lunch, the truck got new tires and then we had fresh oysters for dinner.  And .....THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS WON THE WORLD SERIES....UNREAL!  We were counting on them from before the wild card game.