Sally is a salmon. She’s a slippery-wippery salmon. Sally is a big, bright pink sockeye salmon. She can swim really fast and she also has a special skill. She can leap! Right up and out of the water. She simply loves doing this with her salmon siblings. The faster they swim, the longer they can leap for. And it looks just like they are flying. They kind of are, but without wings!
Sally lives with her family at the mouth of a big river near the ocean. It’s a special place to live. Her mum tells her stories about how her salmon family travelled a long way to come and live in the seawater here. This makes Sally daydream about travelling herself one day. She loves imagining all the new places she’s going to see.
One day, Sally’s mum comes to tell her that they have to leave home because they have somewhere they need to go. Sally is super excited. Finally, she’s going to get to travel!
“We need to get back to the river where we were born so we can spawn and have baby salmon,” explains her mum. Sally is intrigued.
“But how do we find our way back to where you were born when we’re so far away?” she wants to know.
“Well, do you remember that incredible sense of smell salmon have?”
“Of course,” responds Sally, giggling, “because YOU told me about it!”
Her mum laughs.
“That means we can follow the special scent of home right back upstream for many, many miles. We can use it to locate the very place we originally came from.”
“Wow. That’s cool!” says Sally, amazed. However, Sally’s mum doesn’t look so excited. In fact, she looks anxious.
“Mum, what’s wrong? Aren’t you looking forward to the journey home?” Sally asks, concerned.
“I wish I were. But huge dams have been built that obstruct our route in places. They use water rushing down river to create electricity. It’s called hydropower. In one way, it’s really good for the environment. But it’s not so great at all for us salmon.”
“How come?” asks Sally, fishing for more information.
“The hydropower plants contain turbines. These past few spawning seasons, some of the salmon have gone into them and not come back out.”
Sally is really shocked by this. It doesn’t seem fair that the salmon can’t swim back along the river. They were here first, before any dam!
“Can’t you spawn somewhere else?”
“I’m afraid not. It doesn’t work like that. We need fresh water and the loose gravel of the riverbed. We dig our redds – that’s we call our nests – then we lay our eggs in them.”
Sally feels really sad. She wants the salmon to be able to swim back up the river safely. She wonders how she can help. Slippery salmon like to swim as they think. So Sally does the salmon stroke speedily through the water before leaping up and out of the river into the air. SWOOSH! As she does, an idea slips into her mind. That’s it!
She rushes back to her mum.
“Mum, you know salmon can leap really high?”
“I do,” her mum smiles, “because I taught YOU how to do it.”
“Then leaping over the turbines is what I think we’re going to have to do. We have to get back home to spawn!”
“But the turbines are really big. I’m not sure if we can leap high enough.”
“It might help if we take a swimming jump?” Sally suggests.
She can see her mum envisage this in her mind.
“Yes, I think that’s a superb idea!” she says animatedly. “Let’s tell the other salmon!”
The other salmon feel really reassured at the prospect of avoiding the turbines. So they all begin the long trip back up the river towards their birthplace.
After a couple of days, the dam of a hydropower plant comes into view. They swim towards it until they are just a few metres from the loud, whirling turbines
“Now copy me,” says Sally, confidently.
She first instructs the salmon to swim back downstream a little with her. The salmon follow her. She then tells them to turn around with her, so they are facing the dam again.
“OK, we’re going to swim our fastest then leap for our lives,” explains Sally.
“Let’s go! SWIM! SWIM! SWIM!” she shouts, as the salmon take off back up the river.
As Sally comes up to the turbines she leaps out of the water. The other fish all do the same.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! They fly through the air and right over the turbines.
They all make it safely to the other side and continue to swim up the river.
“Spectacular!” Sally hears a few of the fish call out. “Splendid show!” she hears others say.
In a few days they will arrive and the female salmon can start to lay their eggs.
Sally is ecstatic that she’s been able to help her family spawn so there’ll be more baby salmon. Of all the scents she’s known so far, she thinks the sweet smell of success is her favourite!
Questions for discussion
What is used to make a hydropower plant work?
Can you think of any other ways of keeping fish and aquatic life safe around the turbines in these plants?
What things do you do to help keep your friends and family safe from danger?