When asked what the students would be doing at the Millicoma Fish Hatchery on Thursday, 11-year-old Amber Clawson replied “whacking fish on the head with big sticks.”

Of course, there was more to it than that. But Tom Rumreich, a fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, just laughed at her response, because the children do get to hit female salmon on the head in order to harvest her eggs.

“It seems gruesome, but it’s much more than that,” Rumreich said. “They’re playing a role in the life cycle of the fish.”

And that’s exactly what the fifth-grade class from Millicoma Intermediate School accomplished, after donning camoflage-colored waders too large for them. They jumped in the water, weilding a net, and sifted around to catch one of the 40 Chinook salmon at the hatchery.

McKenna Simones, 10, caught the first fish, and one of the biggest in the holding area. The large male salmon put up a fight, splashing and soaking everyone within reach.

“I like getting to learn about fish,” McKenna said.

She said her classmates all will have a great time, and she claimed it was one of the better field trips.

“I think it beats OMSI,” she said.

Once the kids caught a female, which they learned can be identified by the slightly thicker body and smaller mouth in comparison to the males, a lucky volunteer got to “whack” it with a small bat, because the fish needs to be dead in order to harvest the eggs.

Salmon die soon after spawning anyway, so the children were less concerned about killing, and more excited to hold the unfertilized eggs, which are a bit squishy and sticky.

The eggs aren’t considered living until the male’s milt is added, which instantly turns it into a single cell that will multiply to eventually produce a fish. After about 5,000 eggs were taken from the female, the children watched as the milt was added to the egg, and they promptly named it Nemo, after the film “Finding Nemo.” Rumreich chuckled, pointing out that Nemo ends up being the name for most eggs.

Between the Millicoma hatchery and the Morgan Creek Fish Hatchery, classes have been learning about fish spawning since the early 1980s.

Rumreich said the Millicoma hatchery was built in 1990 to accomodate children, with a classroom area, windows to watch salmon under water and an obstacle course area to simulate salmon finding their way to spawn.

Children avoid jump ropes like salmon avoid the Columbia River turbines and use scent as a navigational tool, much how salmon use their keen sense of smell to find their way. A final long jump test to show a salmon’s final waterfall jump ends the obstacle course.

Rumreich said generally two kids make it, which is about the correct ratio of salmon that successfully make it to spawn.

To the children, it’s a fun, messy day away from school playing with fish, but Rumreich knows they come away with a better understanding of salmon and the idea of respecting these natural resources.

“We teach resource ownership to these folks,” he said. “They’ll have a tremendous appreciation of the magnificance of salmon.”