Live Tank Cam
Live streaming is coming soon!!
Welcoming Sally Salmon!
We’re bringing Sally Salmon to our classrooms where she will tell us all about her journey in the fish tanks. Sally is a salmon fry with a unique perspective on the Salmon in the Classroom program!
We are excited to support interested teachers in the watershed in setting up a tank to raise salmon in their classroom. This program is permitted by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADFG), and provides an opportunity to get up close and personal with the early life stages of salmon that are usually out of sight (and out of mind) under gravel, ice, and snow.
The opportunity to care for these fragile life stages help to build personal connections to the fish, which are lovingly named by students over the course of the project. It also reminds students of the delicate lives incubating in the streams around them, ideally inspiring them to be extra careful when moving in and around spawning habitat.
In the spring, the salmon are released into a location approved by ADFG that will have the least impact on wild salmon populations. Students take time to study the habitat where their fish will now swim free, evaluating the food, competition, predators, and water quality in their fishes’ new home. This experience continues to build strong connections between students and salmon and the habitat that supports them both.
Sign up on our email list to follow the salmon tank journey with students – and fry!
Nice to meet you!
I woke up sleepy in a classroom tank in the Copper River watershed. I spent about 7 weeks in my egg before I hatched into an alevin. Wiggling my tail, I pushed up from the gravel. A bunch of 5th-graders were staring at me.
Students have a lot of responsibility caring for me and my fry friends. They monitor our tank temperature, feed us, and clean our tank regularly. In the spring, students wade out into the watershed and release all the fry they raised in classroom tanks into local streams!
Marine Biology Classes Are Always Learning!
The Glennallen Marine Biology Class took an exciting, VERY close look at a salmon egg under a microscope…and it looked right back! We love hearing the excitement in the kid’s voices as they connect closely with the lifecycle of salmon.
Kenny Lake and Glennallen Marine Biology Classes (2023) Study Salmon Eggs
THANK YOU to our partners, sponsors, and individuals throughout the watershed who help make programs like this possible. Your gift goes a long way.
Thank you for giving students this unique opportunity, for helping purchase salmon tanks, fish food, and equipment for classrooms waders for students, and for caring about the watershed now so it can thrive in the future.
Partners and Sponsors: Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Valdez Fisheries Development Association, Copper Valley School District, Bureau of Land Management, Copper Valley Telecom, Copper Valley Electric Association, Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation, Prince William Sound Science Center, Wilson Construction, Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE), Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Slana Ranger Station, and Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission (AITRC).
Contact our Stewardship Program Manger Amanda Jackson with inquiries or questions, stewardship@copperriver.org.
Color each stage of the salmon life cycle!
Color and return to add your art to the salmon tank window display!
Artist Cadi Moffitt is a long-time participant in CRWP and Prince William Sound Science Center’s hands-on education programming…starting with her elementary school days in the Discovery Room and continuing through middle school as part of the Odiak Pond field study. She first ventured into the field during middle school on an 8-day boat-based adventure in Prince William Sound as part of the Chugach Children’s Forest expedition series, on which CRWP educator Kate was lead instructor. Cadi got hooked on adventure and spent two summers during her high school years on the Copper River Stewardship Program, and multiple semesters interning with the CRWP and volunteering her time outside of school and work to help us with salmon habitat studies, stream clean-ups, and of course logos and other artistic projects to help promote our work. She is now continuing to flex her creative muscles in her job as a graphic designer at P1FCU, a credit union with branches across the Pacific Northwest. Cadi graciously donated this piece to help us raise funds in order to continue to provide the sort of hands-on programs that inspired her for many generations of Copper River watershed students to come.
Thank you for supporting programs like this and helping our watershed thrive for people and fish.
