Sapporo Salmon Museum

This guide to the Sapporo Salmon Museum follows a handful of Sapporo residents who, in 1979, waded into the Toyohira River to net whatever chum salmon still turned up at a low concrete weir. Sewage and factory runoff had driven salmon out of the river by 1953, and the volunteers behind the Sapporo Salmon Society set out to test whether the river could support them again by releasing hatchery fry and waiting. You'll hear how the annual routine of netting, hand-stripping eggs and milt, and incubating them through winter took hold, and how a rough fish passage was later added to the weir. Watch the fry tanks by the glass and think about who first stood exactly there, soaked to the waist.