Students from Fauntleroy’s Little Pilgrim School are the latest to release salmon fry into Fauntleroy Creek, where volunteer Dennis Hinton says about 1,000 of the little coho have been released since May 1st (we covered the season’s first student release that day, with Westside School (WSB sponsor) visiting – here’s the story). Dennis reports that about 260 students have been to the creek for releases so far, and there will be more through the end of the month:

The program is coordinated by volunteer creek stewards. Most of these fry have been raised in the classrooms since January. Creek stewards have also been monitoring the number of coho smolt. These are fish the kids released in the creek last May, have survived for about a year, and are now headed downstream to the saltwater. As of today
115 smolt had been counted. The smolt count will also wind up May 30.

Here’s a look at some of those smolt:

After a year in the creek, Dennis says, they are generally three to five inches long. In the fall, volunteers watch again for returning fish; you can find out more about Fauntleroy Creek here.