In the basement of Gould Hall four graduate students show off the fish they’ve been working on this month. In one room, skeletons of halibut, yellow Irish lord and sculpins are laid out on trays next to rendering of what they looked like whole, then skinned, then devoid of anything as they are now. In another room, a slideshow of field work plays on a loop, showing the foursome and their professors Brad Harris and Nathan Wolf building salmon counting weirs, assisting in a razor clam survey, and taking water samples from a lake where red salmon frequent.
In those rooms, it’s obvious who did what, either by the name attached to the drawing or the face in the pictures.
But in the final room, it’s a mystery.
On two round tables, seven salmon filets are laid out next to a number. Those in attendance are tasked with sampling one of each and voting on their favorite. One matches spruce tips with Thai spices, while it’s neighbor is poke inspired. Another is scotch infused and one comes with a jalapeno lime dipping sauce. The other three dummies, either purchased from a store or made by Professor Harris.
“It’s a fun way to end a course that’s been a firehouse of information,” Professor Harris says.
For pictures from the Thursday event, continue below.
Coming soon: our feature on the Ichthyology class. Keep an eye out!
Sculpin skeleton
Thai spices and spruce tip smoked salmon (the winner from the contest)
Smoked salmon from the Ichthyology class contest
All seven salmon samples.
A “high-tech” voting system. Each sticker counts as a vote for the voters favorite version of the smoked salmon.
Sculpin drawings.
Halibut skeleton
