WATCH: Juvenile coho salmon were released into Osborn Pond on Wednesday. Luisa Alvarez reports on the Grade 3 and Grade 4 students from Lakewood Elementary who witnessed the event.
Five thousand juvenile coho salmon were released into the Osborn Pond located on the 15th hole at the Bear Mountain golf course on Wednesday morning.
And students from Grade 3 and Grade 4 at Lakewood Elementary School went to witness the event.
The salmon went in as part of a larger conservation initiative to strengthen the numbers of salmon in the waters off the southeasterly tip of Vancouver Island.
?Osborn pond has been shown to be really really rich of benthic production which is the production of insects and creatures on the bottom of the pond in which these juveniles feed,” said Peter Mccully, technical advisor for the Goldstream Volunteer Salmon Enhancement Association.
But Wednesday’s demonstration was about more than just salmon release. The experience will help the students as they begin to learn about the cycle of the salmon from beginning to end.
“It’s important that they learn where they are coming from and where they are going I mean most of them, they see it is in a grocery store or their parents putting it on their plate but they have no idea what the real system is like,? said class teacher Sherry Fawcett.
While the field trip was meant to be fun, it was really about the bigger picture.
“They are the future and if they understand the rigours and difficulties that these creatures faced in the course of their life perhaps they will be more in tune to those environmental needs that the fish have,” said Mcully.
That way salmon populations stay plentiful for generations to come.
Luisa Alvarez
