Bonneville Fish Cam

I would like to confess a weird obsession. When I’m feeling a little glum, I don’t cry. I don’t call a friend. I don’t go on a walk.

I check the fish cam.

(Note: They haven’t renewed their ssl, so you have to click through the security warning to view the fish cam. That’s a little odd on a .mil domain site, but there you go.) They have a Web cam out at the dam and it snaps a photo of the viewing window every 30 seconds or so. There are different lines painted 18 and 22 inches apart, so you can distinguish between the monster fishies and the tiny ones. You catch glimpses of salmon, steelhead, walleye, carp, lampreys, and even of the broom they use to sweep algae off the window.

My little habit just kicked up a notch or two with the new Fish Cam Gallery. It stores the last 200 images and puts them up in a convenient fishy gallery. There are some big salmon going through right now. And about a bajillion shad. And the summer steelhead are starting to show up in decent numbers.

Lots of other good information is available from the Fish Passage Center on fish counts, water temperature, and flow rates. It’s a good way to learn about the health of the environment and to learn more about the wonderful creatures that we share this beautiful state with.

I haven’t seen one yet, but in anticipation of the day when I see one swim by the window, I even made up words to go along with Foreigner’s 1981 classic, Urgent. You can sing along too:

Sturgeon . . . Emergency
Sturgeon sturgeon sturgeon sturgeon . . . Emergency
So sturgeon! Little fish

I got whiskers – In the mud
I swim along – Eating bugs
I got an earthworm – In my mouth
Someone sets the hook – I start freaking out

(Chorus)

Related Posts

• September 22, 2008 -- Everything’s Gonna Be Plastic (0)

Tagged as: bonneville dam, fish cam, sturgeon