KENNEWICK, Wash.-- Hundreds of elementary school students got to release salmon into the Columbia River Tuesday.

The annual "Salmon Summit" is part of the "Salmon in the Classroom" program. The fourth and fifth graders have tanks in their classrooms for part of the school year and get to raise the salmon from eggs, while learning all about them.

Fourth grader Scott Jacobs says, "Their lifecycle is really interesting because they start out really small and they grow into these gigantic creatures."

"I like learning how they go in the ocean and come back .... http://www.kndu.com/story/14564136/students-release-salmon-into-the-columbia-river

I notice they did not mention how many fish were introduced into the river. I'll bet the number won't even make up for the pinniped and bird predation.

I don't think it is about numbers of fish released. We did this when I was in grade school, released coho into the Tillamook River which ran right behind the classroom. It was alot of fun and one of my best memories of school.

I doubt many if any of them survive, it is about learning about the fish. The more they know the better chance they ave of wanting to learn more and maybe making a difference in the future.

each class gets 100 eyed eggs... from there, usually only a couple doz make it to swim up, depending on classroom husbandry skills, or lack thereof...

They're instant toast in big water, but the kiddies don't know that...

I spent 5 hours talking to 8th graders in the Moses Lake School District that were involved with Salmon in the Classroom last week. I agree, statistically none of the fish will survive to return as adults but that is not what the program is about. Rather, it's about educating our kids so at some point in the future, they'll grow up and hopefully be involved in preserving/conserving our natural resources.

Many years after I graduated, the high school I went to started a program like this and they actually had fish returning to the creek near the school again. When the tribes found out they started netting the mouth of the creek, after some bad PR the tribes moved a little further away from the creek. This was on Lake Washington.

My kids class had a similar program down on the Oregon coast. Amazing part was they got about 15 fish back considering the creek they dumped them into went through about 1/2 mile of culvert pipe before it reached the Yaquina River. They only lasted about 4 days once everyone knew where they were, snagged and smoked would be my guess.