2014 – 2015 Trout In The Classroom
2014-2015 Trout in the Classroom Report
Reg McClelland / Jan 13, 2015
The 2014/2015 Trout In The Classroom session is in full swing and everyone is reporting fry that are “swimming up” to feed.
Luke Rust from the Mercer School District has sent me a good report saying that they have had a very good year thus far with few casualties but as the feed increases the water quality starts to drop and they expect to lose some fish when that happens. This seems to happen with most all schools.
Jan Abernethy from East School in Greenville has had to take a health sabbatical until April and has had to turn the trout tank over to Chad Gongaware. All of us at the Neshannock Chapter of TU wish Jan all the best and hope she is feeling well soon.
I have been in contact with Chad and have supplied him with some information and contacts to help with his transition to head trout raiser at Greenville. Since he has had no training, I commend him for taking this project on. From what I have learned from him he is very committed to see the trout and students succeed. I wish him lots of luck. As of this writing he has some “swim up” feeding fish but is experiencing some deaths and wants very badly to figure out why.
Rick Stephens from the Hermitage school District is reporting a good but not great year. He has said that like other schools they received about half as many eggs as they have in years past. Although they didn’t experience the dreaded “December die off” as some of the teachers on the PA Trout In The Classroom Google Group are calling it, but his live fish numbers have been slipping down recently. He and his students also are trying to figure out why.
Rick also told me that since they received fewer eggs this year that Amidea Daniel from the PA Fish and Boat is actually going to ship him some of their fry. And as of January 14 Rick and his students received about 90 fry that were shipped from Bellefonte by Amidea and her crew. Rick said that it has made for some very happy students. They are also going to do this for a number of other schools. It will be interesting to see how this works out. The girls that run this program for PA Fish & Boat and PATU do a fantastic job.
Karl Rupert from the Farrell School district is reporting another good year. They started out with 227 live eggs and have somewhere between 150 and 175 swimming fingerlings. He states that “they are very hard to count”. I bet they are. Karl and his students have had some really great success with this program, although the Neshannock Chapter did not fund their program we are happy to have them be a part of it and to keep us informed with their successes.
TIC T-shirts are still available for purchase. As a joint initiative by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited, all proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to directly benefit the Trout in the Classroom program, such as providing additional equipment to classrooms, funds for release days and field trips, educational materials, and more. PATU is accepting T-shirt orders on continuing bases. You can find out more information on ordering a TIC T-shirts at PATU’s website, http://www.patrout.org/ Thanks for helping this great program to be a continuing success.
Reg McClelland / Jan 13, 2015
The 2014/2015 Trout In The Classroom session is in full swing and everyone is reporting fry that are “swimming up” to feed.
Luke Rust from the Mercer School District has sent me a good report saying that they have had a very good year thus far with few casualties but as the feed increases the water quality starts to drop and they expect to lose some fish when that happens. This seems to happen with most all schools.
Jan Abernethy from East School in Greenville has had to take a health sabbatical until April and has had to turn the trout tank over to Chad Gongaware. All of us at the Neshannock Chapter of TU wish Jan all the best and hope she is feeling well soon.
I have been in contact with Chad and have supplied him with some information and contacts to help with his transition to head trout raiser at Greenville. Since he has had no training, I commend him for taking this project on. From what I have learned from him he is very committed to see the trout and students succeed. I wish him lots of luck. As of this writing he has some “swim up” feeding fish but is experiencing some deaths and wants very badly to figure out why.
Rick Stephens from the Hermitage school District is reporting a good but not great year. He has said that like other schools they received about half as many eggs as they have in years past. Although they didn’t experience the dreaded “December die off” as some of the teachers on the PA Trout In The Classroom Google Group are calling it, but his live fish numbers have been slipping down recently. He and his students also are trying to figure out why.
Rick also told me that since they received fewer eggs this year that Amidea Daniel from the PA Fish and Boat is actually going to ship him some of their fry. And as of January 14 Rick and his students received about 90 fry that were shipped from Bellefonte by Amidea and her crew. Rick said that it has made for some very happy students. They are also going to do this for a number of other schools. It will be interesting to see how this works out. The girls that run this program for PA Fish & Boat and PATU do a fantastic job.
Karl Rupert from the Farrell School district is reporting another good year. They started out with 227 live eggs and have somewhere between 150 and 175 swimming fingerlings. He states that “they are very hard to count”. I bet they are. Karl and his students have had some really great success with this program, although the Neshannock Chapter did not fund their program we are happy to have them be a part of it and to keep us informed with their successes.
TIC T-shirts are still available for purchase. As a joint initiative by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited, all proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to directly benefit the Trout in the Classroom program, such as providing additional equipment to classrooms, funds for release days and field trips, educational materials, and more. PATU is accepting T-shirt orders on continuing bases. You can find out more information on ordering a TIC T-shirts at PATU’s website, http://www.patrout.org/ Thanks for helping this great program to be a continuing success.