The Fish Hatchery

Yesterday we had a most interesting field trip. It was to a fish hatchery by the nuclear power plant. Now, I have never had the honor of attending this before. Pete has taken Madie and Noah on their trips, but I decided I would do this one. I cannot believe my husband would not love me enough to warn me of what I would see (and smell) there! There was no warning, no mention of the putrid smell and applesauce-like excretions I would see. Now, it wasn't all about that part. We did venture off to another building and down by the lake, as you will see later, but the first 30 min was enough to send me looking for a bucket to puke in. I was actually surprised the floor in there wasn't covered in puke as well as the water that was there. Maybe they spray it down after each visit. Who knows. First thing you notice as you enter this open-air building is the smell. Obviously, it smells like fish, but dear GOD how it smelled like fish! I told Em she never would have made it within 10 feet of the building before wretching. All the kids were hilarious though as they walked in. They all were yelling "Ewww!" and covering their noses. Eventually they must've gotten used to it though, because they were way more excited about what was about to happen than they were about keeping those noses hidden. I mean, look at the happiness on Livie and Jack's faces!

This was one of the guys who spoke to them. At this moment, he's taking a girl fish and literally pushing all of her eggs into a bowl. Around 70,000-100,000 of things came out of ONE fish. I basically looks like applesauce with a little blood in it. He did this with 3 fish, each more disgusting than the last. Notice Livie is standing right there, with her hands practically in the bowl. She thought it was, and I quote, "COOL!". Again, I was in the back gagging.

After squeezing out the applesauce eggs, he took a couple boy fish and pushed out their "milt". Let's just say it doesn't look like applesauce. He then stirred them together with a feather as to not break them and then added clay to keep them from sticking together. I'm sure you're finding this as delicious as I was. Thankfully, we moved on to see where they put the fertilized eggs after they've been mixed. At least there was no more squirting at this point.

Then we got to see the eggs that are hatching. I must admit, this part was kinda cool. It was neat to see all those teeny-tiny fishes swimming around. :-)

These tanks held baby fish that were growing larger. I didn't go up there, because I figured I was pretty good on the fish at this point.

Look at the happy faces after leaving the stinky building. We were in fresh air again!!

Next they talked about diving and clearing out the lake. Floyd, the diver, got suited up after our talk and headed out into the water.

There he goes diving! The kids got to talk to him on the radio while he was about 10-12' under.

They kindly provided a snack of goldfish crackers and juice boxes. Thought that was really sweet of the guys there!

The kids even got to try on a diving helmet with Floyd. Livie looks ready to go! As much as it stunk in the first building and nearly caused endless about of spewage from my body, it really was a fun, interesting trip. And, most importantly, Livie had a great time!!