Where are the Fish?

Where are the Fish?

We had been in Whitehorse before, and unfortunately, spent the one nice day in a long time doing our chores, and thinking that the next day we would play.  The next day, the weather had turned cold, windy and grey again (is there a pattern here?) and so we were not able to do what we wanted. 

The day we finished our chores, we went into town to scout out the stores and decided we were really hungry for a Pizza.  We went to a place called Bocelli’s at the recommendation of the women at the Visitor’s Centre.  But we had a pizza worth waiting for!  We were so full when we left that we decided to defer our grocery shopping until the next day.   Our pizza and two beers cost $50.   Nothing extravagant, that’s just the going rate in Canada.  And the exchange rate is about even!

I discovered that Whitehorse boasts of having the longest wooden fish ladder in the world.  Couldn’t leave town without seeing that!  The water was really coming over the dam!  This is the Whitehorse Hydroelectric Dam.  The dam is located where the rapids once were for which Whitehorse is named.  The rapids were one of many obstacles to the stampeders as they tried to get to the Yukon.  The rapids were so big and foamy white, they reminded the man of horses manes, and hence the name Whitehorse.   

The water coming over the dam may have a similar appearance. 

The fish ladder is indeed long, and there weren’t any fish.  We found out that less than 1,000 fish make it here after starting at the mouth of the Yukon, having had their last meal before spawning.  It takes three months to go the 2000 miles.  Some of the 178,000 fish that start go off into other streams, and there is a lot of predation, etc.  The ones that do make it here are not fit for consumption. I heard the natives took them to feed their dogs during the winter.   So, the salmon won’t be coming through this ladder until  mid to late August. Even at that, they capture those few fish in a holding tank and take some of them for their eggs so that they can increase the number of salmon spawning in the area. This apparently has met with some success.  

The town has tried to make the area more appealing, given that there aren’t any fish to watch.  On the 50^th anniversary of the dam, they had a contest for painting fish to put on this wall.  They do lend a lot of interest!  

Can you find the one going the wrong way?