Real-Life Math
Depleted salmon stocks present a big challenge for natural resource
managers. Year after year, fisheries experts are faced with finding ways to
manage dwindling stocks. As a fish and wildlife technician, your job of monitoring
salmon stocks plays an important role in this difficult management strategy.
One
way you help with the monitoring of salmon management is by counting the salmon
passing through "checkpoints" on a salmon run. A salmon run occurs when salmon
swim through to freshwater to spawn. It's your job to keep track of the
number of fish that pass through your checkpoint on their way to spawn.
You
and a couple of other technicians have marked down each fish that passes by
and totaled those numbers each hour. At the end of every day, you must total
up each of the hourly figures and calculate the average number of fish every
hour. Here's what the numbers look like after the first week:
Day
1: 886
Day 2: 942
Day 3: 922
Day 4: 876
Day 5: 946
Day
6: 849
Day 7: 964
At the beginning of day 8, one
of the biologists with the fisheries agency where you work contacts you. She
says the press has been in touch with her, and they want a rundown of how
things are going and a projection of the figures for the salmon run.
Using
the average hourly rates above, calculate the number of fish that have passed
by your checkpoint since the beginning of the salmon run. Once you've
done this, use these figures to estimate the total number of
salmon in what's expected to be a 23-day salmon run.