Bethany Richmond does not know what lake water and live fish taste like and she refused to find out Tuesday during the Salmon Celebration in Kasilof.

So, as the third-grader made her way down the sandy bank to the water’s edge at Johnson Lake, she made frequent stops and flinched away from the trout she was determined to let loose.

For a year, Richmond’s third-grade class — taught by Bill Vedders at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School — has followed the life cycle of a salmon.

During the once-a-year Kenai Peninsula Board of Education meeting at Seward High School, east Kenai Peninsula residents had a chance to voice their opinions on issues ranging from dwindling population at the area’s middle school, to district staffing changes.

District Superintendent Steve Atwater compared Seward residents voicing their opinions to wolverines which he said were pound for pound, one of the toughest animals he knew. “Pound for pound, the Seward Community is as vocal as any community in the borough.”

The first commercial fishing announcement of the season in the Upper Cook Inlet restricts commercial king salmon fishing in the Northern part of the inlet.

The setnet fishery, which has had an average of 53 permit holders during the last ten years, is comprised of fishermen on both the East and West sides of the Cook Inlet who will see their first fishing period closed in response to king salmon conservation concerns.