Essay by Kristy Balluta from Nondalton, Alaska

My name is Kristy Balluta I am 20 years old and I am of Athapaskan heritage. I live in the village of Nondalton, Alaska that has between 200-300 residents. My ancestors are the Athapaskan-speaking Dena’ina (Tanaina) Indians who first migrated across the Bering Land Bridge about 12,000 years ago, the end of the last ice age. We have been firmly established in the Cook Inlet region since the late 18th century. Because Lake Clark is interior, or away from the coast, sockeye salmon are an important food resource for local residents.

I have worked with the U.S.G.S. Intern Program on a sockeye salmon study for the past 3 years. I have learned a lot about the biology and life history of sockeye salmon. Sockeye salmon are the 3rd most abundant of the seven species of Pacific salmon. Sockeye salmon are born as eggs, left by female salmon buried in the gravel, where they spend the winter developing from an egg to an alevin. After that, they emerge from the gravel and rear in fresh water for 1-2 years as a juvenile. Then they “smolt”, which is a physiological change that occurs traveling from fresh to salt water. The change allows them to survive in salt water. The length of time in the ocean varies from 1-4 years. After feeding and growing to a much larger size in the ocean, the salmon travel back up to fresh water to find natal or birth sites where they spawn and die.

The past 3 years were very enjoyable. I learned a lot and met some new and very interesting people while working. My friend Julia Vinciguerra, a bio-technician from Toledo, Ohio, has also worked on the program. Julia and I worked together collecting thousands of otolith samples from the subsistence catch for the past 2 years. We have enjoyed working and learning together about sockeye salmon and also how to run different boats.

It was fun getting to know so many different people from all over the United States. Another girl I met who was a volunteer, Leslie Diaz, was a Puerto Rican and she came up from Brooklyn New York, which was interesting.

I have learned how to count sockeye salmon in the counting towers at the River Mile 22 Camp located down the Newhalen River. This has taught me the importance of counting salmon up the Newhalen River into Six-Mile Lake and Lake Clark. Compared to runs in previous years, the returns are very low and people are concerned about the health of the salmon. The runs are very important to local residents around the Lake Clark/Iliamna area because they depend on the salmon for subsistence. The salmon are one of their native foods that they rely on. If the runs continue to decline we may not have enough fish for the people and the ecosystem.

I have also learned how to radio tag salmon and track them to their spawning sites throughout Lake Clark.

I learned how to record scientific data, collect genetic samples, and salmon scales and otoliths (earbones) to age fish.

After samples and otolith-associated data are collected it is entered and proofed. Then the otoliths are sent out to a person who specializes in reading the ages. Fish scales and otoliths have daily and annual rings, like trees, so that we can determine how old a fish is by counting the number of rings.

You can also determine the how many years a fish was in fresh water and how many years a fish was in salt water. Fresh water rings are more closely spaced because Alaskan lakes are not very productive and there is not much food for little salmon (fry) to eat so the otolith grows very slowly. In the ocean the fish have lots to eat and the growth of both the fish and the otolith is faster.

This program has showed me what it is like to be a biologist, in case I want to pursue this sort of job in the future. I benefited a lot from this program; it is a really great learning experience. I would highly recommend it to other students interested in this program.