By Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun
With squeals, shrieks and plenty of peer pressure, Palisade High School students lined up to release endangered razorback suckers — with a kiss for good luck — into the Colorado River.
“Grab a fish, kiss it, put it in the river,” Charlotte Allen, 18, a senior at the high school, told amped up students as they prepared to hold the slippery fish.
The school’s endangered fish hatchery, which began in 2020, released its thousandth razorback sucker Friday during its annual release celebration. The program is part of a greater effort to restore populations of the native fish — an effort that helps pull water west in Colorado to benefit ecosystems, farmers, communities and industries along the Colorado River.