Students Release Fish in Salmon Brook Park

Middle school students from Windsor St. Gabriel school recently gave a group of Atlantic Salmon a push toward the most important journey of their lives.

Having raised the fish since January when they were delivered to the school as eggs from the Connecticut River Salmon Association, St. Gabe's sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students made a trip out to Granby's Salmon Brook Park, where they set them free.

"This is a safe place," St. Gabriel teacher Meg Rosa said. "We used to go in Windsor... but Salmon Brook Park is a spot that's an approved spot by the Connecticut River Salmon Association."

Rosa said that the students spend each week learning about the salmon and their environments, tracking their growth, which is based on temperature.

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For the next two years, the salmon, which are Atlantic salmon, will spend their time between Salmon Brook Park's stream and the Farmington and Connecticut Rivers growing until they reach their smolt stage — the point at which the fish change from freshwater fish to saltwater fish, Rosa said.

According to Rosa, the fish will then head out to Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean, and eventually return to the stream to lay eggs.