Only The Strong Survive
(Adapted from the Alaska State Museum's Salmon Kit)

Salmon lay thousands of eggs but very few make it to the age where they come back and reproduce. Here are a few reasons why. Use the numbers below to find out how many salmon are left. Use this page for your work and keep a running tab.

  1. A salmon deposited 5,000 eggs in a redd.
  2. Five hundred (500) eggs were not fertilized.
  3. Sixty (60) were washed out of the gravel when a 3-wheeler ATV crossed the stream.
  4. Mud from building a new subdivision eroded into the stream and suffocated one thousand (1,000).
  5. Three hundred (300) alevins died because they were very weak.
  6. After the alevins developed into fry, five hundred (500) were eaten by other fish in the stream.
  7. Forty-one (41) were eaten by birds.
  8. As they neared the ocean, (260) smolts were caught in a pool where they got too hot and died because of thermal pollution from a coal-fired power plant.
  9. In the ocean, 1,500 were eaten by bigger fish.
  10. Seals ate 95.
  11. Fisherman caught 556.
  12. As the salmon returned to their spawning stream, bears ate 180 of them.
  13. Three (3) were dashed against the rocks trying to jump the waterfall.
  14. The rest of the salmon spawned.
  15. HOW MANY SALMON WERE LEFT TO SPAWN?
Answers Here

There is more fun ahead!