Fish in Schools an educational experience for local classrooms

Two classrooms in Weyburn have been selected this year for the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation's Fish in Schools program.

The students of two teachers, Cody Patterson at Weyburn Comprehensive School, and Candice Porter at St. Michael School, will help fish grow through all the stages.

"The program provides students with a first hand look at fish and aquatic habits in their own in their own classroom," said Larry Olfert with the Weyburn Wildlife Federation. "The program involves raising trout from the egg stage to fry, and then to fingerlings, then they release them into water bodies."

Just last Wednesday, the rainbow trout eggs were delivered and placed into the classrooms aquariums. 

"We thought it might be a couple of weeks before we had much action, but this year it is not even a week later, and we've got some youngins and swimming around in there."

"The kids are pretty excited, of course, we all are, because it's a brand new program for us." 

"For the next three to four months, the students will care for the fish by monitoring the conditions in the water and maintaining them required for the trout to live in, so we've got a chiller and a filtration system and it keeps the water clean and that's supposed to be exactly the right temperature for. And then in May, June, the trout will be ready for the students to release. In our case, they're going to be taken to a trout pond at Mainprize Park." 

Olfert said the Weyburn Wildlife Federation is extremely pleased to assist both Porter and Patterson with this program, as this project is certainly extra work.

"Thank you to them for for taking this program on," he commented. "Shaun and Terra Ortman, and Judy Olfert, and Joe Stefaniuk were very key to this whole program. Thanks also to James Villeneuve from the Sask Wildlife Federation, he's the fisheries technician and the Fish Hatchery at Fort Qu'Appelle, for making this program possible." 

Candice Porter said since this is her first year doing this, she's learning about the process right along with her students.

"The Wildlife Federation's been absolutely fantastic. They provide a manual with directions and lots of information, which is great," she shared. "A lot of it, in Kindergarten, is watching the changes and the lifecycle talking about the parts of the fish, even how to care for it. We have everything from a chiller - the water has to stay at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so it's cold like the lake. It has to have chemicals put in to keep the chlorine out." 

"As we go, they'll be the each student will take a turn feeding it each day and changing the water. We have to change so many gallons as the fish grow, as there's more waste in the water."

"There will be more care to do so I'll have them help as well."

Porter added all the classrooms in the school have access to learning about the fish and their habitat.

She said the SWF has provided everything required to raise the trout successfully, and Larry and Judy Olfert, "have been absolutely wonderful to work with as well."

To follow the journey of the schools of trout, follow the WWF on Facebook HERE. 

The photo above shows the eggs upon arrival last week. The photo below shows the emerging trout babies.