USF Anthropology student Elizabeth Arnold scoops a load of pink salmon at the Sheldon Jackson Hatchery. (KCAW photo/Rich McClear)

USF Anthropology student Elizabeth Arnold scoops a load of pink salmon at the Sheldon Jackson Hatchery. (KCAW photo/Rich McClear)

There are two things Sitka has a lot of in summertime: fish and students.

These two species met recently in Sitka Sound Science Center hatchery, in the heart of downtown Sitka.

But, it was not a fisheries tech class from the University of Alaska who were up to their elbows in pink salmon. Rather, it was an Anthropology class from the University of San Francisco, studying under the well-known scholarly team of Sharon and Richard Gmelch.

KCAW’s Rich McClear stopped by the hatchery’s raceway to find out why anthropologists are interested in fish, and sent this audio postcard.

Downloadable audio.

Those are the voices of Gilbert Tan, Jesse Lizama, Sarah Fry, and Elizabeth Arnold. And because they are future anthropologists, as soon as McClear finished interviewing them, they interviewed him.