Checking out smolt at the Dunedin Community Salmon Hatchery
in Sawyers Bay yesterday are Sawyers Bay Primary School
pupils (from left) Jack Spence, Summer Coombs (front),
Brianna Markham (rear), Mahia Harvey-Knox (front), Khaan
Phillips (centre), Sequoia Darling with parent helper Jim
Hawkins, hatchery feeding roster co-ordinator Mike
McLelland, Holly Mason, Jade Middleditch, Alice Davis,
Sonya Frew and teacher Gareth Swete. Photo by Linda
Robertson.
Pupils took turns feeding and catching the 22,000 smolt
from the outdoor concrete pond where the salmon live.
They learnt the salmon stay in the hatchery for a year before
they are big enough to leave for sea.
The fish return to the harbour when they are between 6kg and
12kg to spawn.
Pupil Kane Wilson (9) said salmon was his favourite fish to
catch from the harbour.
"I want to work here [at the hatchery] when I grow up."
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