Fish Friends Revival Continued & Wild Atlantic Salmon Partnership (CNL-WASP) via Fish Friends and Student Fly-Tying

Description: In 2024, Environment Resources Management Association (ERMA) intends to expand the highly successful Fish Friends program to include up to eleven groups. The program gives children and adults the opportunity to explore the world of the Atlantic salmon.

ERMA revitalized the program in central Newfoundland in 2020-2021 with one school. In 2021-2022, with COVID-19 still a limiting factor, but with support from ASCF, ERMA expanded to include four groups. ERMA has the facilities, qualified experienced team members and DFO licensing to collect salmon to provide fertilized eggs for this program. Groups will be supplied with incubating systems (tanks and incubators), and ERMA will deliver fertilized salmon eggs. Students then learn and observe the life cycle, raising salmon to the “fry” stage, before returning them to the Exploits River.

Newfound and Labrador English School District (NLESD) and Central Health (CH) will partner on this project. The 6-month extracurricular activity (April 2024 to June 2024; September 2024 to December 2024) will consist of Elementary, Junior High, and High School students in a maximum number of schools in the Central Region. Four to six schools will be invited to participate this year, which expands upon the 12 interested schools who participated last year.

Fly-Tying is a Culturally Authentic activity that is therapeutic in nature and relates to Wild Atlantic salmon stocks through education, conservation (getting youth “on the river”) and hands-on learning. This activity will be a deep learning initiative in the realm of Mental Wellness Promotion, Wild Atlantic Salmon (WAS) education, small business development/ entrepreneurship, and the overall conservation of WAS. It falls under the H.A.L (Healthy Active Living) umbrella when people take their finished products and use them via nature-based fishing adventures. In a structured environment within in the NLESD school system and involving teams and guest presenters, youth will learn the art of fly-tying (the making of artificial flies and insects on fishing hooks to be used in the great outdoors).  They will be instructed on how such an activity promotes positive mental health as well as salmon conservation by getting more recreational anglers on our rivers and waterways, thus deterring poaching. They will also learn how valuable this anadromous fish species is to the NL culture and communities. Fly-tying sessions in the schools will be held on a weekly basis as well as after school as decided upon by the school teams in the Central Region.

ERMA’s end of school year, (May/June) or end of project year (November), event will be a 2-day Fly-Tying Symposium to be held in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL. Students from the participating schools will be invited and ERMA anticipates that approximately 100 students will participate. The event will consist of basic tying sessions, advanced tying sessions, student fly-tying competitions with prizes, special guest expert tyer(s), plus small group team teaching and practice.