The Small Fry Club

Small Fry Facts | Activities | Small Fry Club Pack

The Small Fry Club is for kids ages 7 and under who love water and who want to learn how to protect it. Without water, people and animals would not be able to live, and without clean water we are in as much trouble!

As a Small Fry, you will learn ways to protect the beaches you go to, the lakes you go fishing in, the water you drink, and the creatures that live in or near the rivers, streams, lakes or ocean near you. You will also learn special facts, and get to play games and activities that are created especially for Small Fry.

If you would like to become an official Small Fry, you can Print Your Own Certificate And Official Membership Card Here. Carry your card with you and show others how they can become Planet Protectors like you!

Just like a salmon fry grows up, you do too! So, if you are older than 7, you are no longer a Small Fry but you can be an official Water Wizard. Find out how to join the Water Wizards Club today!

What is a fry?

Salmon go through five life cycles from egg to adult, just like people grow from embryos into babies, then into kids, then teenagers, then parents, then grandparents. A fry is a young salmon in its third life stage, just beginning to explore the world on its own. The five life cycles of a salmon can be seen here:

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Salmon fry are very inquisitive and want to know everything they can about the world they live in. For salmon fry, their world is the stream in which they were born. Fry are very good swimmers, and as they get older they swim further up and down the stream poking under roots and rocks that also live in the stream, making new friends they like to play with and learning new things every day.

What is water pollution?

Water pollution is anything in the stream, river, lake or ocean that harms the natural resources found in those environments. Most of the pollution found in water is man-made, and includes garbage - like plastic bags, fishing lines, pop cans, balloons, and candy wrappers. All of these types of things you can see, but other times the pollution is invisible, such as fertilizers from farms and lawns, chemicals from factories or from washing our cars. When these things get into the water, they cause pollution. Pollution makes it very hard or impossible for animals like salmon fry to live and breathe in the water. It may also contaminate our drinking water.

Where does water pollution come from?

Water pollution can come straight from human activities, like littering, or dumping chemicals and trash into the water, or it can be picked up through the water cycle. The water cycle accounts for each step by a drop of rain from the minute it falls to earth, until it is returned to the ocean. As the rain drop makes its way back to the ocean it comes into contact with many contaminants which it may carry back into streams and rivers all the way back to the ocean becoming part of the water pollution problem.

Why should you help stop water pollution?

Trash hurts animals.
Animals can get tangled up in garbage found in streams, lakes, and oceans, which can make it hard or impossible for the animal to swim. If it cannot swim properly, it cannot find or catch food, escape predators, or may even drown. Animals may also think the garbage is food and eat it, which can make the animals sick or kill them. Chemicals can also get into the water and pollute their habitats. This means the animals may not be able to find clean water to drink or in the case of fish and other creatures that live under water like salmon fry, they may not be able to get enough oxygen from the water to breathe.

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Beach water may become polluted.
Have you ever been to the beach and seen a "No Swimming" or pollution warning sign? This is what happens when water becomes polluted. Most often, this kind of pollution is invisible and it requires health or environmental officials to test and monitor the water quality. When it is unsafe for people to swim in water, it is unsafe for animals like salmon fry to live and breathe in the water. It also makes the water unsafe for animals like deer to drink the water. Making sure that you are doing your part to keep the water clean goes a long way to ensuring we can swim all summer long.

Drinking water may become polluted.
Just like animals, when our water gets polluted it can make us sick, and in extreme circumstances even kill us. In Canada we are lucky to have lots of good drinking water sources, but toxic chemicals can enter our waters from many different sources and put our drinking water at risk. These include chemicals used by industry, pesticides and herbicides used on farms, and things like paint, glue, or toilet bowl cleaner that we use at home. Much more needs to be done to control toxic chemical pollution. Meanwhile, we can all contribute to the prevention of water pollution by not abusing the water or the land.

How can you help save water and keep it clean?

Every effort to protect our drinking water, no matter how small, is very important. Together, individual actions can make a big difference to water quality and the environment as a whole. Here are some things you can do to keep our drinking water clean:

1. Don't pollute - when you go to the beach or on a walk or on a boating trip, always keep your trash with you until you can throw it in a trash can, not in the water or on the ground.
   
2. Don't run the water when you are brushing your teeth. You can waste a lot of water this way!
   
3. Don't throw batteries into the trash. Batteries contain lead and mercury, which are harmful to the environment. When it rains, these contaminants can be washed into waterways or septic systems and pollute streams, rivers, lakes and drinking water. Batteries and other household cleaners and paint should be dropped off at special collection sites.
   
4. Never throw garbage of any kind in a toilet.
   
5. Recycle and use recycled materials when possible. Items like pop cans can be recycled, rather than thrown in the trash, and made into new things. Plastic pop bottles can be recycled into fleece clothing!
   
6. If your friends and family pollute, teach them how to be water and earth friendly! Consider giving a class presentation on salmon fry and how water pollution make is difficult for them to swim and breathe in the water.
   
7. Learn more about stewardship!