Alevin at CIS

It's an exciting week for the Salmon program at Canton Intermediate School as fourth graders are getting an up-close look at the “alevin” stage. 

Tuesday afternoon, Lori Burrous' class came into Allison Godbout's classroom, where the salmon are being kept, for a lesson about the stage. 

Godbout reminded the students about the high mortality rate of the salmon and told them 189 out the 200 had successfully gone from the "eyed" egg stage to alevin stage, during which a yolk sack provides nutrition to the hatched salmon. She also reiterated the need for calm and quiet and then transferred some of the alevin to Petri dishes so students could observe, draw and make observations. 

The program is part of Salmon in Schools sponsored by the Connecticut River Salmon Association.

At Godbout's request, administrators and staff agreed the salmon program would be an excellent way to bring the fourth-grade ecology unit to life. The eggs arrived in January. 

In addition to observing the various stages, students are closely monitoring the salmon by checking the water temperature of the incubator that houses the fish and recording other data. 

When the Atlantic salmon reach the fry stage, the students will be able to release them into the Farmington River.