FENNVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of students at Fennville Public Schools will release hundreds of chinook and king salmon into the Kalamazoo River Friday.
It's the school's fourth year participating in salmon release day. It’s part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ salmon in the classroom program.
About 50 students at Fennville High School are involved in raising the salmon. Over several months, the students hatch and raise chinook and king salmon.
"It's way more hands on than a textbook," said Sydney Hansen, a senior at Fennville High School. "You actually get to learn about them and watch them grow."
The students received about 200 eggs in November.
"They start with green eggs when they're originally born. A little bit later they have little black dots, they're called eyed eggs. This is the stage where we get them," said Carole McNeal, a science teacher at Fennville High School.
Over time, the eggs turn into sac fry, to swim fry to smolt. Eventually, growing into two- to four-inch fish by the time the students release them into the Kalamazoo River.
"The first year we actually killed every fish we had so we had to go get more," said McNeal. "Since then we learned and we're now having a record year. We have 178 fish when we started with 201 eggs, which is an 88 percent survival rate."
The program is science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at its finest, according to McNeal. The students do everything from checking the chemicals in the tank, changing the water and feeding the fish.
The program impacts more than the students; it helps with the environment and ecology.
"This is definitely adding a higher-level predator into the ecosystem. It’s going help keep the prey under control," said McNeal. "It also helps keep the water a little bit cleaner with some of the filtration they do."
"The fisherman can come out and have more to catch, that means they're spending more money and then our community fairs better, no matter what.”
The Fennville students will release the salmon at New Richmond County Park from 8:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday.