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Flying Fish · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:08
  Every week I share my observations and adventures with the
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  human and natural world
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  SPEAKER_00: around Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode dives in the archives,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: not mine,
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  SPEAKER_00: but the newspaper ones,
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  SPEAKER_00: and celebrates flying fish of a most curious kind.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:27
  You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my
• 0:29
  previous four years of newsletters,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 24 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Flying Fish,
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  SPEAKER_00: May 14,
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  SPEAKER_00: 2025.
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  My story last week about the herring caught by the osprey
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  reminded me of another
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  SPEAKER_00: flying fish tale.
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  SPEAKER_00: This one is even nuttier, with longer-lasting consequences.
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  If you were standing on the shore of Lake Washington in Seattle
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  on September 15,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: 1938,
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  SPEAKER_00: you could have seen 2,000 flying trout.
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  SPEAKER_00: They came from a low-flying plane,
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  which dropped the fish fingerlings in a rectangular metal can
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  attached to an old
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  SPEAKER_00: gunny sack made into a parachute.
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  SPEAKER_00: The fish bombers experimented during several flights,
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  SPEAKER_00: varying the size of the can and the parachute.
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  They then recovered the cans and discovered that the
• 1:21
  several-inch-long fish were,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: not dead,
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  SPEAKER_00: injured,
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  SPEAKER_00: nor apparently even excited over this experience,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to a Seattle Times reporter in an article two months later.
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  The aerial ichthyologists also figured out that they had to
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  starve the fish for two
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  SPEAKER_00: days prior to the flight or the airplane trip made them sick.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nothing's worse than an air-sick fish.
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  SPEAKER_00: The final challenge was getting the fish out of the,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  floating prison of the can after it landed on the water and had
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  its opening on its top.
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  The solution was to attach a block of wood to the bottom of the
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  can so it would
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  SPEAKER_00: flip over after it landed and dump the fish in the water.
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  A man named Alvin Carlson had suggested this method of lake
• 2:01
  stocking to the
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  SPEAKER_00: Washington Game Department.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was a member of the Trailblazers,
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  SPEAKER_00: a group formed in 1934,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: to help make this wonderful state of Washington a fisherman's paradise,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: They still exist and are still helping to stock lakes.
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  Carlson was searching for more efficient ways to spread fish to
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  high country,
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  SPEAKER_00: hard to reach lakes.
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  He'd initially suggested pouring out the fish from a plane
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  flying just over the water,
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  SPEAKER_00: but this was deemed too dangerous.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thus, the idea of flying high and parachuting the fingerlings.
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  The next day,
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  September 16th,
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  Game Department personnel proceeded to the high country.
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  They flew in a single-engine float plane up to the mile-long
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  Otter Lake at 4,400 feet,
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  SPEAKER_00: about 12 miles northeast of Snoqualmie Pass.
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  The men carried 10 cans with a total of 12,000 inch-and-a-half
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  fry on the plane and
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  SPEAKER_00: dropped them from about 1,000 feet above the lake.
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  SPEAKER_00: About a third of the cans missed the lake or overturned in flight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two years later,
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  a group of trailblazers hiked the nine miles up to Otter Lake
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  and found that those
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  SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve rainbow trout
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  SPEAKER_00: Fry had grown into thousands of 10 to 13-inch fish.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: fighting fools,
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  SPEAKER_00: well distributed all over the lake,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote,
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  SPEAKER_00: said Carlson to a Seattle Times reporter in July 1940.
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  The Washington game people weren't the only state employees to
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  rain fish into lakes.
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  SPEAKER_00: In California,
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  SPEAKER_00: they took a different approach when,
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  SPEAKER_00: in 1949,
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  barnstormer pilot Al Reese froze fish into blocks and
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  parachuted them into lakes in
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  SPEAKER_00: ice cream buckets.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was not a success.
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  SPEAKER_00: Next,
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  SPEAKER_00: he let a five-gallon can free fall from 350 feet above the lake,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it hit rock instead of water.
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  SPEAKER_00: Surprisingly,
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  SPEAKER_00: a few fish survived in the remaining water,
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  which prompted Reese to eventually let the fish free fall by
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  themselves into a lake.
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  SPEAKER_00: Within a few years,
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  SPEAKER_00: several states had turned to stocking by air,
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  but it's unclear how long Washington state employees continued
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  the can-based method
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  SPEAKER_00: of stocking fish into high lakes.
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  SPEAKER_00: One unanswerable question is,
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  how many metal cans are resting and rusting on the bottom of
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  lakes across the Cascades?
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  SPEAKER_00: By at least the late 1950s,
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  parachuting fish into lakes was no longer the preferred method
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  for plain stocking
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  SPEAKER_00: the Cascades.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
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  WDFW employees had decided that it was better to go with Alvin
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  Carlson's original
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  SPEAKER_00: idea of simply flying low and letting fish freefall into the water.
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  This practice continued until the late 1990s,
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  despite what falling into lakes did to fish.
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  SPEAKER_00: One biologist who witnessed the showers of rainbow trade said,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  many of the fish were ripped apart on impact and many others
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  were so stunned,
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  SPEAKER_00: they immediately sank to the bottom,
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  SPEAKER_00: never to recover.
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  SPEAKER_00: WDFW continues to stock fish in the high lakes of the Cascades.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: though,
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  the most common way to do so is for people to carry fingerlings
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  on their backs up
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  SPEAKER_00: to the lakes.
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  It's certainly a much less spectacular method,
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  but the fish are much happier.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
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  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 5:14
  a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human and
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  natural world around Seattle,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my books,
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: walks and talks,
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: and a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com.
• 5:29
  And don't forget to slow down,
• 5:31
  pay attention,
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  and enjoy the world around you.