My smolt is alive, but he seems to be reluctant to head too far north. Seems like the first thing this project will teach me is that smolts don't all make a beeline for the ocean when they out-migrate.

I'd be interested to see where the other Skok smolts are on the map, to see how far they are spread out and how far they have ranged so far. I know my smolt is closer to the estuary than he was yesterday morning.

Sea Slough is in South sound trying to figure out which way is the ocean.

Beyond developing a "school" there doesn't seem to be a way for legitimate smolt sponsors to see how their fishey is doing compared to others. That is, unless I missed a feature. Anyone with better insight??

‘Shark bait’ is not among the living after traveling 16.67 miles.

Puget Pounder cant find his way out of the nisqually. But he is eating bugs and enjoying all of the uber expensive engineered log jams & habitat restoration projects.

NO! No No No! It just can't be - and Shark Bait was sooo young and had such a great future ahead of him.

Has the coroner listed a cause of death? Chronic sealitis? Cormorant gluttany?

I would send a donation but just rec'd my Visa statement including a $50 charge to support Sgt. Snackbar and Sushi.

My condolences Lucky. (Lucky??)

Maybe Puget Pounder and Sushi have a thing going there in the river.

Thank you for your condolences Larry B. The poor little guy was ambushed close to shore after coming in from deeper water.

He will be buried at sea shortly after movement from the predator scatatorium.

RIP Shark bait.

Bruce from the Skok is one eager beaver.
He has traveled over 69 miles and made it past the Hood Canal Bridge, which some seem to think is a barrier to fish migrating out of the canal.
He is currently just south of Foulweather Bluff.
SF

May be good timing......there were Orcas around the South end of Whidbey yesterday. If lucky (Sorry Lucky) they will cut down on the seal population.

Gone but not forgotten. Would you like to share Sgt. Snackbar? Help get you past your loss??

One of our four, Bubbles, bit the dust south of the Hood Canal Br. Two others are streaking through the Canal, and Twitch is hanging out around the Nisqually Delta, not sure what to do.

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We have a school of about 20 fish at work. We can track each other's fish, and I think it's correct to say that it's a little more fun to be able to compare and contrast. Generally speaking, seems like the Nisqually fish are more prone to failure to launch, while the Skok fish really tend to get after it. I chose Willy because he was big. He died, fast. One of our fish is Flashy--an appropriately named smaller smolt that apparently has gone over 100 miles (not in a straight line: hit the bridge, went in reverse, then turned around to give it another shot). As of yesterday, we had only a few fatalities and about 2/3rds of the alive fish are moving along pretty well.

Skawar (sp) is taking his time lolly-gagging down the Nisqually. He should reach the estuary soon unless he plans on becoming a resident trout. At just under 9 miles, he's slower than the average smolt that's traveled 23 miles and hit the Sound.

My fish also went in reverse, about mid canal.
I wonder how common that is?
He racked up some additional miles on his journey odometer by doing so.

Edit...
Just got an update.
Bruce turned around again and it headed back towards the bridge.

SF

Jet is about mid-Canal today, about 9 miles further from the estuary than yesterday. It's too bad we only get one daily update; it could be very interesting to see where the fish go between updates. I get a sense that they do a lot of backtracking so far.

Thank you, but I am now following my ghost fish for the rest of the 12 day trek.

It is interesting regarding the progress of other fish reported.

The 'map your fish' feature shows where the smolt goes between updates, provided it swims enough to generate that data. Flashy from the Skok is now at 130 miles and the map shows him twice swimming up to the Bridge, failing to push through and then retreating back down into the canal. One other fish map (can't remember which one) shows the smolt dipping into a side channel, then it figures out that isn't right, and it heads back out into the main channel. The map doesn't work with Internet Explorer but works fine on an iphone.

I should have sponsored a fish! Sounds like fun.

It also sounds like some of these little guys behave more like fledgling birds than fish. Leave the nest; go back to the nest; venture a little bit further the next time then back to the nest again. Repeat until they are confident enough to make the big trek into the big blue. Pretty cool if you ask me.

If they do this program again, I'm thinking of getting together a "school" at work and maybe make it into a friendly workplace competition. Maybe we could also pool our resources here and get a PP "school" up and running?

Just received the update on our two Nisqually fish.

While Sushi was slow getting out of the river once he hit the salt he made a quick trip to just off Gig Harbor and apparently became seal lunch. R.I.P. Sushi.

Sgt. Snackbar on the other hand has made several trips from Anderson Island to the Narrows and back again. He lives!! (for now)