BELFAST — Recently, a dozen area students bid goodbye to their salmon fry after caring for them since they were delivered as eggs earlier this spring. 

The 12 schools involved include Searsport DHS, Belfast AHS, Troy Howard Middle School, Capt. Stevens Elementary School, Cornerspring Montessori School, Nickerson Elementary School, Drinkwater School, Lincolnville School, Appleton Village School and Camden-Rockport Elementary School. Each school received 200 eggs. 

The salmon eggs were provided through a program of the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Atlantic Salmon Federation, called "Fish Friends,” formerly known as “Salmon in Schools,” and administered by the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition.

The release site is along the Wescot Stream in Waldo, which is the only undammed tributary in the Passagassawaukeag River drainage. From the Wescot Stream, the salmon fry are able to grow and have free movement out to the ocean. As adults, they return from the ocean to the Wescot Stream to spawn.

Each student gets an opportunity to release salmon fry from a small paper cup placed at the stream edge, letting the fry swim into the waters of the stream. Records of exact numbers of fry released are kept for management purposes. In recent years, because of budget constraints on the USFWS, the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition has financially taken over the program as well as trouble-shooting the aquarium and chiller systems.