Vision

Wild Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) was extirpated from Lake Ontario in 1898 due to European Colonization – habitat degradation, damming of rivers, overfishing, and pollution.

We wanted to set up a salmon hatchery at our school, with salmon eggs provided by Bring Back the Salmon – https://www.bringbackthesalmon.ca/

The goal was to grow the eggs into salmon fry and release them into the Duffins Creek watershed in an effort to bring salmon back to a healthy and self-sustaining population to Lake Ontario.

The goal was to release a combined ~7000 Atlantic Salmon fry into seven tributaries of Lake Ontario across 83 organizations, including our school.

Action

We set up a salmon hatchery at our school, with salmon eggs provided by Bring Back the Salmon – https://www.bringbackthesalmon.ca/

The tank was maintained and monitored mainly by our grades 2 and 7 students, with some involvement from all students in grades 1-8. It was done under the guidance of team members from Bring Back the Salmon.

The eggs grew into salmon fry in our tank, at which point they were released into the Duffins Creek watershed on May 23rd, 2025. The grade 1s and 2s travelled out to Duffin’s Creek and each child got to name and release one fish.

Reflection & Celebration

The children had an amazing experience with this project. When we met with the “Bring Back the Salmon” team on release day, they asked the children lots of questions about sustainability, wildlife conservation, pollution, and these young, grade 1-2 students, had all the answers! What a great learning opportunity this was.

The teachers also tried to do this project last year but they did not have the right tank/filters so almost none of the eggs survived. This year we purchased all the right materials and 77 fry were released!