Salmon stuns class by not dying

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SILVERDALE -- For Terry Donison's science class, the two-headed salmon was an oddity that everyone expected would be temporary.

But one month later, Sam and Ella, so dubbed by Donison, is alive and swimming.

"It appears to be very healthy and very active," said Donison, whose classroom at Ridgetop Junior High School in this Kitsap County community is home to Sam and Ella's tank. Central Kitsap Kiwanis gave Donison the supplies and eggs as part of its Salmon in the Classroom project.

About a month ago, shortly after the eggs hatched, Donison discovered one of the baby salmon had two heads. The oddity quickly became the focus of her class and an extra point of study. But the prognosis for the salmon was grim: Two-headed animals born in nature usually die soon after birth.

Shortly after Donison's salmon were born, the young fish settled into the gravel at the bottom of the tank, as they would do naturally in a stream, and were forgotten.

Early this week, as Donison was moving rocks at the bottom of the tank, Sam and Ella reappeared. She was shocked to find the salmon still alive.

Sam and Ella is now about an inch long and swimming around with the other fish.

Last month, Doug Williams, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, predicted Sam and Ella wouldn't make it out of the gravel.

After learning this week that the salmon had survived, he said, "That's great, that's wild."

In his 10 years with the department, Williams has never seen an adult two-headed salmon.

"We wouldn't have anything to compare it to," he told The Sun of Bremerton.

Donison plans to move the fish to a smaller tank where it can live alone and not compete for food.

The two heads make swimming difficult.

"The heads are so heavy," she said. "I'm not sure it could float up to the top to the food."

While Sam and Ella's counterparts will be released into Clear Creek at spring break, Donison plans to keep the two-headed salmon as long as possible.

"I suppose I'll be sitting here with an eyedropper nursing it," she said. "If I need to, I will."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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