It was a beautiful day for Mr. McCarthy’s grade five class from Woodland Elementary to help dozens of young salmon head back into the river today.

It’s all part of the annual Atlantic Salmon Federation’s Fish Friends Salmon Release program with the Fluvarium. It’s all the better to see after the organization had been struggling to find funds for their educational programming just last month.

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The schools taking part – Roncalli, Woodland, and Riverside Elementary – received 100 salmon eggs in late February and have raised them to the fry stage, now to be released to the river.

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NF Power is sponsoring the program, and was on hand to give out snacks as well.

Student Joshua Newhook released a salmon, who he had named Jeffrey. He says the fish weren’t always easy to care for, but that they learned a lot.

He’s learned about salmon migration, how they grow up in a river, and come back to the same river to lay eggs.