The classroom of Ralph C. Mahar Regional School teacher Evelyn Cunha has a unique teaching station where students watch brook trout hatch and grow. Through the MassWildlife Teaching with Trout initiative, her classroom is one of about 50 in Massachusetts that are connecting students with this special resource.
Cunha, who also serves as advisor to the Mahar Fish ’N’ Game Club, has been part of the program for the past few years and uses the growth of native brook trout from eggs delivered by MassWildlife staff to reinforce curriculum points and expand the understanding of the ecosystem for the 70 students in her classes, the high school and middle school members of the Fish ’N’ Game clubs, and other science students.
Teaching with Trout was designed to introduce students to the concepts of ecology, population biology, water quality and conservation. The goals of the program are to connect students to their local environment, learn about water quality and habitat health, and introduce conservation concepts related to local aquatic resources.
In the classroom, students raise brook trout from eggs during the winter, then release them into approved lakes and streams in the spring. To be part of the program, schools must provide a very specific environment for the brook trout, a native species that is being challenged by loss of the cold-water habitat it requires.
That environment is expensive. Teachers in the program have to provide an appropriate aquarium. The one in Cunha’s classroom meets the requirement of 55 gallons. This would be expensive if it was not already in place but once a system is purchased, maintaining it costs very little. Besides the tank, you need a water chiller (trout need a temperature of not more than 68 degrees), a water filter, a water pump, an air pump, water chemistry test kits and reagents. MassWildlife provides food for the trout.
Cunha gives a great deal of credit to the three high school co-op students whose job is monitoring and maintaining the aquarium habitat. Amanda Ramos, Jenn Dunphe and Nick Burnett made sure everything was perfect for the trout. I recently joined Nick as he netted 45 parr (trout less than 1 year old), and released them into Moss Brook.
Cunha noted that her middle school students at first expected the eggs to immediately hatch and quickly turn into fish swimming around. The process is slow, and when the fish hatch, they instinctively hide in the rocks at the bottom of the aquarium as they live off the egg sac that is absorbed when they are ready to swim around.
At Moss Brook, Nick released the parr fingerlings into a pool and they quickly regrouped in an eddy. They need to stay together for protection and there was a very large hatch of mosquitoes. The swarm at the surface meant that mosquito larvae were below the surface, and the young trout would soon be feasting on natural food.
There is a great deal of interest in brook trout right now as the number of cold-water streams is dwindling. In Massachusetts and throughout the Northeast, biologists are using modern technology to learn as much as possible to keep this species a part of the aquatic environment.
Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish ’N’ Game Club, counselor and director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp, a Massachusetts Hunter Education instructor for more than 40 years and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.