So my entry that was with these photos went poofta! and I'm not sure where it ended up. So I'll recreate it in brief. My building at work is just yards from Lake Union, and right at the shore is the Salmon Hatchery. These fish are incredible, and I had no idea. They are hatched here in fresh water, are released, swim across the lake to the Bay and then out into the ocean, become saltwater fish, cruise up to Alaska or elsewhere for a few years, then about 4 or 5 years later they swim back hundreds of miles, back into fresh water, and come to the exact hatchery where they were born. They produce a few kids in their hometown and then die days later.
I think this is pretty amazing because I still get lost going to the grocery store, never mind swimming from Alaska.
There's lots more to read about if you're interested in their journey at the UW Hatchery site. They put a microchip in each fish so they can track which ones come back.
Also, the adults that return are really freakin big. By the time they're about to die, they are some nasty looking fish. They're literally falling apart, and their skulls are showing and they're three and four feet long. You can see them in the pictures -- I kept thinking they were going to eat the ducks.
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