Editor’s note: Skyview Junior High seventh-graders recently released young salmon fry into Bothell’s North Creek. Here’s two letters students.

My seventh-grade science class and I raised salmon eggs in our classroom, until they were old enough to be set free. Raising salmon taught us all a lot about what it’s like for them and the challenges they face.

When they were old enough to be released, we went down to a stream that leads to the Puget Sound and set them free. The data we got showed the stream water was mostly healthy. Although, this does not prove that North Creek will stay in good condition for the future. We observed and recorded that the habitat for the salmon was mostly safe. There were lots of trees, and not many predators.

I suggest that a law should be created banning car washes that are used to raise money. There are plenty of other ways to get money for a cause. Soapy water runoff goes into the nearest drainage area, and eventually gets into the streams where our salmon are being affected. They are harmless creatures and did nothing to deserve being killed by something that could be prevented.

Diane Fankhanel

Recently, we went on a field trip after school to release our salmon. It is very important for us to care about the salmon and healthy streams. This is because we wouldn’t want to eat polluted salmon, we don’t want to have them extinct and we need to keep our ecosystem balanced out. Also, our whole environment would be affected if there are less salmon or the streams are unhealthy!

For example, if there are less salmon or if they become extinct, there would be more insects because of fewer predators. The predators of salmon would have less prey and so the predators would slowly die off. Salmon dying off would affect the whole marine ecosystem’s food web!

I thought that the temperature was the most important for the salmon because the temperature affects the amount of dissolved oxygen. If the temperature is too warm, then there would be less oxygen for the salmon. I think that there should be more signs or reminders such as no throwing things in the streams and no littering. It would be even better if we had machines that occasionally test the water to check if the water meets the chemical requirements for healthy salmon. If a requirement were not followed, then there could be an alert system to notify people and help improve the stream quality.

Jessie Ke