On Oct. 3 and 7, vandals cut the nets in the wood holding pens containing the salmon at the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies in Tiburon.
Some of the 60,000 salmon that entered the Bay were raised by students at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma. The salmon were to be released at the institute's Discovery Day on Oct. 30.
The fish were being raised as part of a restoration project run by the Tiburon Salmon Institute in partnership with the San Francisco Tyee Club.
The institute is soliciting donations for the reward, and also hopes to install a security system at the Romberg Center, its executive director Brooke Halsey said.
Donations may be made at the Bank of America in Tiburon and through the Tiburon Salmon Institute's website.
The FBI is investigating whether the vandalism was committed by an animal rights group, Halsey said. An update on the investigation will be given at this afternoon's news conference, which is taking place at the Tiburon Center at 4 p.m.
Some of the students who raised the salmon will attend the news conference, Halsey said.
There also will be a fundraising screening of the movie, "The River Why" at the Lark Theater in Larkspur on Oct. 27, Halsey said. The movie is about the self-discovery of 20-year-old man who leaves his family to live in a secluded cabin on the banks of a wild river and do nothing but fish.
The California Department of Fish and Game will donate 1,000 steelhead trout from a hatchery for release at the Oct. 30 Discovery Day, Halsey said.
