On a recent Friday morning, third grade classes from South Whidbey Elementary School gathered at Maxwelton Creek for an exciting tradition.

Carefully, the kids knelt near the creek and tipped cups of murky water into the stream, releasing salmon fry. Cries of joy filled the air as the fry swam away, beginning their journey to open waters.

Third grade teacher Lori O’Brien picked up the salmon eggs at the end of December from the Wallace River Hatchery near Sultan, Washington. Since then, students had been eagerly monitoring their progress in a tank at the school.

“I think at the school it’s great, because the kids can see them every day and they climb under the aquarium and they can watch eggs hatch and all that,” she said.

Towards the end of their lives, salmon make their way back to their natal streams to spawn.

“The hope is that they’re gonna remember the smell of the stream, and so that’s one of the reasons why they’re releasing at this particular time,” O’Brien said.

Within the state, several population groups of Chinook, coho, chum and sockeye salmon are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Third and fifth grade classes at South Whidbey Elementary School raised a total of 500 fry this spring. Their release comes at a particularly momentous time – Lolita, the captive orca in Miami, finally may be freed. Southern Resident orcas, like Lolita, eat salmon.

“Isn’t that exciting?” O’Brien asked her class. “And it makes today even sweeter than maybe other years.”

The salmon release program is a component of the students’ environmental education, which includes the study of whales. The annual release takes place at the Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom, which is also known as the Rene Neff Outdoor Classroom in memory of the late schoolteacher. Neff helped found the classroom in 1997 as a way to encourage salmon spawning in the nearby creek.

At this year’s release event, kids read haikus about the fish and showed off colorful bracelets they made representing the life cycle of salmon. Some even named the fry, with creative names such as Sally and Simone, Spot and Little Spot, Megalodon and Whopper Jr.

O’Brien told the kids to remember the salmon when they are in sixth grade. Around the time the students sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, she explained, the salmon they released will be returning to Maxwelton Creek to spawn.

Photo by David Welton Kids read thoughtful haikus about the salmon before releasing them into the stream.

Kids spent the last few months monitoring the growth of salmon in a tank at South Whidbey Elementary School.

Photos by David Welton Students were taught to carefully release their fish into Maxwelton Creek.

Photo by David Welton A group of friends shows off the colorful bracelets they made that represent the life cycle of salmon.