As brown trout alevins make their new homes nestled in baskets in 16 school aquariums around the region, you might be wondering the behind-the-scenes journey of the trout's arrival to your school.
Last week, we took a trip to the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) State Hatchery in Bath N.Y. Students from South Seneca Elementary School and Dryden High School joined us as we collected trout from their incubator trays and toured the hatchery.
By the time we arrived, our trout had already hatched into the alevin stage, with their yolk sac connected to them. Using pipettes, Dryden H.S. students removed trout alevins from their trays and filled 16 jars with about 100 fish each. Each jar was meant for one of our 16 TIC schools raising brown trout.
Later, S. Seneca Elementary students joined the collection process, as the high schoolers taught the younger students proper collection technique. Altogether, the students collected about 1600 alevin trout!
During the visit, two knowledgeable hatchery guides gave students a tour of the facility. Students got to see the behind-the-scenes operation at the hatchery, where they were not only raising brown trout but other fish like lake trout, rainbow trout and more. Students got to feed some the fingerling fish and watch the fin tagging process before the fish were released into the wild. They also learned more about the stream stocking process and got to see the vehicles and machines that enabled lots of fish to get loaded up on trucks to be distributed at streams across New York State.
All around, it was a really great October day at the hatchery. Later, Discover Cayuga Lake staff and Trout Unlimited volunteers helped to distribute the near 1600 trout alevins to schools all around Cayuga Lake where they now nest in their aquarium baskets as they continue to grow into fully developed fish!
-Katie Barnhill
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