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Essex Elementary 4th Graders Raise and Release 185 Salmon

From eggs, to fish, to release—4th-grade students at Essex Elementary School had the unique chance to watch as 185 salmon grew under their watchful eyes from tiny eggs into squirmy fish. Last week the students released the salmon fry into the Salmon River in East Hampton.

Combining classroom learning with hands-on exploration, this science unit is something to which students look forward as part of their 4th-grade experience, and through which they learn about the North Atlantic salmon’s ecosystem and environment.

Releasing the salmon was a memorable culmination of the whole experience, students said.

“I liked watching the salmon grow and then getting the chance to release them and watch them swim away,” said 4th-grader Callie Breitenbach.

Each December for the past decade, Frank Kucharski, a retired teacher who now acts as a liaison between the Connecticut River Salmon Association and Connecticut schools, delivers 200 eggs from a hatchery in Kensignton to the 4th-grade class. Since the salmon’s winter arrival, the students have observed the salmon, which are housed in a special temperature-controlled tank.

Students watched as the eggs developed over time until they reached what is referred to as the “fry” stage. During this time, the salmon still have an egg sac to survive and feed off, but it will quickly be absorbed into their bodies and the fish will be ready to eat bugs on their own. The salmon that were released by students last week were in the fry stage and were only about an inch long.

Because of their small size, the fry make easy meals for predators such as trout, so the students were careful to release their charges in an area of the Salmon River that’s very rocky, ensuring the tiny creatures quickly had a safe place to hide.

Kucharski explained that fewer than 0.01 percent of the 185 fish released will survive. He also explained that a salmon’s life is not an easy one. The fish that do survive stay in the fresh water until they grow to around six inches—they’re called “smolts” at that stage in their life—and begin their long journey from the fresh waters of the Salmon River down to the Connecticut River, then south under the East Haddam Bridge, past the town of Essex, and out into the salt water of Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook, where they encounter even more hungry predators such as striped bass and bluefish. Once in the ocean, the surviving salmon make the long pilgrimage all the way north, past Maine to the waters surrounding Greenland, where they remain for about two years, growing bigger and stronger, then they make their way back using their sense of smell to the Salmon River to lay their eggs.

“I never knew how far salmon travel just to eat and lay their eggs,” said 4th-grader Lily Frese. “I think this was a really fun unit. I loved the hands-on learning we got to do.”

Her friend Maizy Libby said she didn’t think it would be fun to be a salmon.

“I would be too scared of predators eating me all the time,” she said.

For Fionnoula Collins, who loves to fish, the chance to learn about the life cycle of salmon was exciting.

“I think it’s important for us to learn about salmon, because they almost became extinct and with knowledge we can help them survive by not catching them and by not polluting their habitat,” she said.

For 4th-grade teacher Amy MacDonald, the lesson underscored the importance of educating students about their surroundings and the ecosystem in their own state.

“This unit teaches students to care for a species and learn about different habitats and environments. If our kids don’t learn about and understand how to care for the world around them now, how will they know how to when they are adults? These students are the stewards of the earth,” said MacDonald.

In the past this program, which Kucharski calls a “legacy program,” has been funded at the state and federal level, however, those funds have dried up and the Connecticut River Salmon Association has decided to keep it going through fundraising efforts.

“This was almost the last year we were going to be able to do this, so we are very glad that we still have funding for now,” said MacDonald.