BOSTON -- While most of us are thinking of turkey this week, school children in southern New Hampshire have the Atlantic salmon on their minds.

NewsCenter 5's David Brown reported Tuesday that local kids are taking part in an aggressive campaign to save these fish, whose numbers are critically low.

Kids Get Hands-On Lesson In Fish Life Cycles

"These salmon returned -- these big adult salmon returned to the river way back in the spring, and they spent the entire summer in these deep pools," volunteer Doug Smithwood said.

A class of second-graders is learning about Atlantic salmon at the National Fish Hatchery in Nashua, N.H. The native New England fish was almost wiped out, but through aggressive release programs there is hope that the numbers will rebound.

The kids' role is to not only learn about the fish and their habitat, but help in the fish's growth and their release in the spring.

"I hope they understand the importance of keeping this species around -- their role in the ecosystem, the importance of having clean water," said Kyle Flanery, of the National Fish Hatchery.

The odds are stacked against the fish. Each year, nearly 1 million are hatched and released in local rivers, but only hundreds make it home after journeying to the ocean. It's unclear why, but polluted oceans, overfishing and predators take their toll.

It's the kids' turn to get a hands-on lesson on the life cycle of the fish. Eggs from the female are extracted and mixed with what is called the male's milt. About 5,000 eggs will be fertilized, but only a few hundred will hatch.

Once they grow at the hatchery, they'll be released in the spring by the students.

It is just the beginning of a four-year, 2,000-mile journey that takes the fish from Nashua up to Greenland and back again.