Kingfisher Interpretive Centre in Enderby is buzzing with school kids excited to release their home-grown chinook salmon.

They are part of a program called Stream to Sea, which teaches elementary and high school students to become aquatic stewards, protecting local watersheds.

“We deliver the program to 48 schools from Revelstoke to Cherryville,” said Neil Brookes, hatchery manager at Kingfisher Interpretive Centre. “We deliver about 40 eggs to each school. They start feeding them in February. Then when they’re ready to release, which is this time of year around May or June, they come out and let the fish go back into the river.”

In addition to releasing their salmon, the children rotate through several learning stations to learn about watersheds, aquatic ecosystems and vegetation.

“This centre started in 1979 or 1980 as a community salmon hatchery when the salmon stocks were low,” Brookes said. “Our main focus now is education.

“The salmon, for us, have become a vehicle to get kids into nature and look at life cycles, food chains, nutrient cycles and just introduce them to being out in the world.”

Jordan Bridgeman is a Grade 5 student who had been raising her chinook salmon, Peanut, for several months.

She had mixed emotions about the release.

“It was fun, but it was also sad,” Jordan said.

Ben Blauuw is another student who participated in the Steam to Sea program and attended the field trip to Kingfisher Interpretive Centre.

“Today we’re learning about pollution and how we need to stop pollution from happening,” Ben said. “Then you get to know more about how the Earth works and what’s going on in the world.”

The salmon population in British Columbia is in decline and Brookes says it’s due to a number of reasons.

“Global warming, acidification of oceans, predators and loss of habitat — mostly because of the works of man,” Brookes said. “Trying to restore that and protect it and preserve it is one of our goals.”

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