On February 22nd, NSEA held the 13th annual Fish Trivia, graciously hosted by Zeeks Pizza. This event is an opportunity for the community to come together and have some fun while raising funds for NSEA.

We were joined by our friends at the Whatcom Land Trust, Bellingham Technical College, and Whatcom Conservation District (in spirit). Each organization provided a round of trivia questions that covered general fish knowledge and organization-specific information. The final two rounds tested folks’ ability to visually identify different pictures of salmonids and to name the title and artist of fish-related songs. The majority of questions were read by our terrific emcee, Jim Helfield, a professor at Western Washington University. His friendliness and passion for all things fish-related made the event even better than we could have hoped.

A total of 121 people showed up and participated in Fish Trivia, more than we have ever hosted since we began holding this event! Along with their enthusiasm and spirit, participants also brought some great creativity in the form of their team names. Some honorable mentions include: Talapia We Finna Slapia, Brain Sturgeon, and Requiem for a Stream. But at the end of the night, the team that took home the prize for best team name was Better Call Saulmon. The lucky winners received five pairs of socks from the downtown sock store Cute But Crazy. Other prizes that we were extremely grateful to have donated to the event came from Makeworth Market, Vital Climbing Gym, the Community Boating Center, and Mt. Baker Ski Area.

There was some drama in determining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, as we had a tie between two teams for second place. Being the prepared trivia hosts we are, we quickly whipped out our tiebreaker question: What was the heaviest salmon ever caught? Both teams were in the ballpark, but the closest to the correct answer (which was a whopping 126 pound salmon) was Tilapia We Finna Slapia to bring home the 2nd place prize. With just one more point, the 1st place prize went to F the Pebble Mine. Congrats!

Sammy with NSEA’s awesome community program interns

Thank you to all of our wonderful partners and dedicated trivia participants. We love hosting events like this and they are only possible with your participation. The money raised through this and other events also helps us continue to fund our programs that help protect salmon in Whatcom County. This year’s Fish Trivia event raised over $830 dollars for NSEA and we are extremely grateful for everyone that helped make that happen. We look forward to hosting many more Fish Trivia events in the coming years.

By Aidan Hersh
AmeriCorps Environmental Stewardship Coordinator

As Summer turns to Fall and our short Washington window of sunshine comes to an end, the time comes for us to get cozy and bundle up for a long winter season (or if you’re me, to keep wearing socks and sandals every day). For our local salmon population, however, it’s the beginning of the most crucial and physically exhausting part of their life cycle: spawning. Many of the streams that these salmon return to run right through our residential neighborhoods, providing excellent opportunities for the public to view and learn about salmon.

Every Fall, NSEA hosts Salmon Sighting events at a selection of these salmon-bearing streams to engage and educate the community about the value of wild salmon and why protecting them is so important. This year, from the end of October to late November, NSEA held nine Salmon Sightings throughout Whatcom County, engaging over 500 people. We were able to see fish at all but one of the events, with a few sites being particular highlights. One such highlight was Oyster Creek, which runs close to Taylor Shellfish Farms and is the natal stream of a large population of chum salmon. On November 5th, we had 130 people attend our event and observe dozens of spawning salmon, many of which were no more than several feet away from the viewing area. Participating in the organization of these events is always valuable, not least due to the excitement they bring to community members, especially children who may be seeing wild salmon for the first time. Salmon Sightings are integral to our mission of inspiring the community to care about and understand salmon, and they will continue to be a cornerstone of NSEA’s stewardship programs.

Salmon play the crucial role of being a food source for a variety of organisms, and this Fall we decided to host an event that would highlight one of these relationships. On December 17th, we held an Eagle Sighting and Photography Workshop with two local photographers, Rich Bowers and Alan Sanders, and a former Audubon Society board member, Chris Brewer. Together with the 10 attendees, we drove out to the Nooksack River and observed about 70 bald eagles over two and a half hours. It was a unique experience that emphasized the vital relationship between these two iconic species of the Pacific Northwest. Be sure to check in next summer for more opportunities to see native salmon and learn about their ecological significance.

Testing Bellingham’s Fish Knowledge

A Fall Season Full of Salmon (and Eagles!)