Kids Released the Salmon They Hatched into the River

A fish hatchery project came to an exciting conclusion when kids released the salmon they hatched into the river.

Fourth graders at Center Elementary School released salmon into the Salmon River in East Hampton. The students began a salmon hatch and release project in December, after receiving a donation of 300 salmon eggs from the Connecticut River Salmon Association.

The students have been studying life cycles in their science class.

Each of the 48 students took a paper cup holding two juvenile fry, and poured the tiny salmon into a low water area on the riverbank by the Comstock Covered Bridge.

According to their teacher Jeremy Moore, they lost a third of the 300 eggs during the four month long study.

“We had a fungus outbreak in the tank for reasons that we just don’t know. That was common throughout the state in the entire program,” said Moore. He taught the children how to monitor and care for the eggs along with fellow fourth grade teacher Shawn Quinn.

The children were part of an effort by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to maintain recreational fishing of Atlantic salmon in state waters.