Fish program finds parallels in nature
Community
Posted By Kevin Rushworth, Reporter
Posted 2 months ago
For students and members of the Crowsnest Pass Fish and Wildlife division, five months spent as part of an educational raise-to-release fish program recently ended with the trout being released into Chinook Lake on June 12.
One sophisticated fresh water aquarium was set up in the office while students at Isabelle Sellon worked to raise their own rainbow trout. As part of the FinS program—which stands for Fish in Schools—both groups raised their rainbow trout from nothing more than eggs.
According to Daryl Wig, senior fisheries biologist, the educational program got kids connected with nature and the fish process. After the release, he spoke of the importance of taking ownership of our natural environment.
"There are many parallels that can be drawn between things that happen in the aquarium and what might actually happen in nature and the natural setting," Wig said. "Fish don't lay their eggs in a basket and get fed six times a day."
Wig said that he found some of the failures in the program to be the best learning situations. After changing aquarium settings in the office, he came in to find the water temperature much too high and they lost a number of fish. Wig said everything in the tank could be directly related to actual natural processes.
"When we have a hot dry summer, those fish get extremely stressed by the water levels in the creek dropping and the temperature gets very warm," he said. "Sometimes, fish die from that."
The eggs came from the Allison Lake Brood Trout Station, a facility that produces many rainbow trout eggs. From there, many of the eggs are sent to Calgary's Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery.
Christine Wilson, administrative support for Fish and Wildlife, said the program presented an excellent opportunity to discuss fish stocking with both children and adults. However, she said she'll now think twice about where she goes to fish.
"It's not going to be quite the same for me to go fishing at Allison, just because that is where we released them and we want to see them grow into healthy adult fish," she said.
A key process of the fish release was getting the temperature of the tank water down to the same temperature as that of the creek. Wig said he was surprised to find a six-degree difference.
Wilson wants people to know that they offer fish stocking reports to interested people.
