Fish Creek Weir north of Seward

This weir is north of Seward a few miles and one of many weirs along the peninsula that assist Salmon to reach their home turf in order to spawn and die. The headquarters are on the western side of the peninsula near the town of Kenai.

There are folks who work the weirs daily. The fish manage to jump onto the platform and make their way behind the waterfall where they end up in a large cage. Every 15 minutes the cage is hydraulically brought up 10 feet or so, the fish are hand netted one at a time and moved 5 feet where they are released down a shute into the much calmer river on the other side of the falls. From there, after they have recovered from the shock and regained air into their gills, they make their way up the stream to spawn. The day we were there 400 salmon had been assisted.

The salmon seem to gather in waiting a few yards from the weir. They can not all make the jump at once and the fish seem to instintually know they have to wait their turn.

This looks like a placid stream for the fish to have come up, and it is. But...as they are lined up to wait their turn at the jumping thing, bears come along with their young to feast on the delectable salmon. The day Judy and Jerry headed out of Seward, they called to tell us a mother bear and 2 cubs were there. We dressed and drove right out, but they were gone already. We check again for 2 days, earlier and later to no avail. Never saw the bear family.





BBYN, Karen & Don