By Vanessa Broadbent
Oliver Chronicle
Salmon in B.C.’s rivers are currently embarking on their annual trek to the Pacific Ocean and students at Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) had the opportunity to play a role in the fish’s journey this year.
In an effort to reintroduce salmon to the Okanagan River system, the Okanagan Nations Fisheries Department partners with elementary schools in the area every year by supplying classrooms with salmon eggs and everything needed to help them grow.
Then, every spring, the fish are released in the Okanagan River at the department’s hatchery in Penticton. This year, SOSS students joined in as well.
Taylor Baptiste, an Aboriginal Support Worker at SOSS experienced the program while working in an elementary school. She thought it would work well in a high school and requested to bring it to SOSS.
The fish arrived at the end of December and are in the school’s aboriginal room and while Baptiste handles most of the care and maintenance, students have been able to observe and track the salmon’s growth, from eggs to alevins to fry.
Jeremy Crow, SOSS’ Indigenous Education Advisor, said the students enjoyed having the fish around.
“Kids are pretty interested in it,” he said. “We put up a big poster out there and people stop by and talk about it.”
Crow said while the students don’t handle the care and feeding of the fish, they’ve participated in tracking their growth and observing each of the salmon’s stages.
When the 100 salmon eggs arrived, the tank was covered to provide the darkness the fish needed, since the eggs are normally buried before they hatch.
The water they were kept in was maintained at 9 degrees Celsius to mimic the cold river conditions they would be entering.
“It’s just more having salmon here – you can see them grow,” Crow said. “They (students) understand what’s happening, and we put up dates on the wall to show them growing from eggs. There’s a whole process there, and now they’re at this stage.”
“This stage” is the final one, at least for SOSS’ involvement.
Other than a few casualties at the beginning and over spring break, most of the fish survived their time at SOSS and are now ready to move on.
On Wednesday, the fry were released into the Okanagan River and will begin their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Aboriginal students from SOSS, as well as the school’s EPIC (Experiential, Project-Based, Indigenous, Community) class went to the fish hatchery in Penticton to observe the release.
“After seeing how little these guys are and they’re raised in this little fish thing, I don’t know how they’re going to handle jumping in the high water and going down the river,” Crow said.
“They have to go all the way down the Okanagan River, into the Columbia River, and they make their way around through the Pacific Ocean.”
It’s still unclear at this point, but Crow said it’s likely that the program will occur yearly at the school from now on.
Crow noted that the students grew attached to the fish over time.
“A lot of the students would come in and check it out and there’s a couple students who would just come in and sit for minutes and watch the fish swim around.”
