Fish Friends Project

The fourth graders at Madawaska Elementary School raise salmon every year in an effort to conserve the Atlantic salmon. We become a mini-hatchery for the months of February, March, April and May. The chance of survival in a hatchery is eighty five percent (85%) compared to a twenty percent (20%) survival rate in the wild.
The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) ships between 200-500 salmon eggs to our class in late February. Eggs are placed in an incubation unit that models the wild. After a few weeks, the eggs hatch and begin to live off of their egg sacs. Once their egg sacs are gone, they swim to the top looking for food. We feed them a special diet until they reach "pinky length". In early June, a representative from the (ASF) applies for a stocking permit from the State of Maine. We release our salmon in a local stream, Martin Brook, located in Madawaska.
During these incubation months, students write journal entries noting changes from egg to fry and they compose questions they may have about the salmon at this stage. We have a variety activities that we do in conjunction with this program. One of the culminating activities is a trip to a real hatchery. The owner gives students a tour of his trout farm and explains each stage to the students.
Students are responsible for the following activities during the incubation months:
Removal of Dead Eggs and Alevin Twice a week students look for dead eggs and alevin, removing them with a turkey baster so they don't spread disease. Students keep a tally of the number of salmon removed. This number becomes our "removal tally". We will need this number after the release to calculate the total number of eggs we received from the ASF.
Checking Temperature Each day students check to make certain the temperature in the tank is similar to the temperatures in the wild. Radical changes may harm or even kill the salmon.
Feeding the Fry Once the salmon fry swim to the top to look for food, students feed the salmon once a day with an appropriate amount of food supplied by the ASF.
Releasing the Fry Students help to package the fry into five (5) gallon pails for their release. Once we reach the release site, each student is given a sandwich bag and receives a few salmon from one of the pails. One student will act as recorder and tallies the number of fish placed in each of the bags. This becomes our "release tally". The salmon are then released into the stream.
Totaling the Number of Salmon Released The teacher and students use the "removal tally" and the "release tally" to calculate the number of eggs delivered to the school. From these numbers, we calculate the survival rate in our mini-hatchery.
Learning Results Assessments Student Work To learn more about the Fish Friends Program and how you can take part, visit their homepage at www.fishfriends.net.

Fish Farm Learning Results Evaluation