Students get into salmon project

Published 12:28 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Brenda Sexton

The Courier-Herald

Thursday morning, J.J. Smith Elementary School fourth-graders edged toward the banks of the Green River and a slow-moving stretch of water near the Whitney Bridge. In their five-gallon buckets they carried approximately 230 young salmon.

It was the final part in a project that began in January when the students provided a temporary home for 250 coho salmon eggs from the Soos Creek Hatchery with the blessing of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

According to fourth-grader Joseph Miller, the students were studying about Washington state, but found there weren't many books in the library on salmon.

"So we wrote one," Alix Nickerson said, using research from the Internet and what they've learned.

Teacher Laura Johnson said the classes were also inspired by the book "Come Back Salmon" about an Everett area school that brought back a polluted creek bed to become a salmon habitat.

"They know so much about salmon now," Johnson said.

The students began caring for the salmon as eggs. They've been watching them grow, and documenting their growth, in a 50-gallon aquarium in the school's lobby, so all the students could watch.

It's definitely been a learning experience, Johnson said. The students and staff have been charged with keeping the tank clean and feeding the salmon, who lately have been eating six times a day.

"They're voracious," Johnson said. "like piranhas."

Releasing the fish into the Green River was a good move because it has suitable habitat, said student Andrew Jones.

"Simply because that is the area where the fish would be most easily camouflaged," Kaitlyn Renaud added. Both are students in Faith Lindley's class.

The salmon will eventually head to the ocean where they will mature. They will then return to the Green River, lay eggs and die.

Jones guesses about six to 10 salmon will return in three to five years.

"When they come back here, we'll be in seventh grade," Renaud said.

The classes will keep 20 salmon in the tank at the school for further study.

"This is a great project" teacher Jody Emerson said. "It is so cool for them to watch them go from eggs and now get the chance to release them."

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.