May 27

So today was fish release day.  After another disastrous week  (we had a the room aquarium shatter on Tuesday morning), we went to Thorn Creek to release our remaining fish.  After loading and counting, we were able to release 94 brookies into the stream.  After releasing the fish, we had Tim Wilson of the PFBC perform an electroshocking demonstration for us where we were able to observe 16 different species of fish.  Ryan Harr then did a demonstration of macroinvertebrate sampling, and we ended the day by planting 200 trees at the Thorn Creek Habitat Improvement Project.  Overall, a great day, and the rain held off until the very end!!

May 2011

Sorry for the long delay between posts - been working through some technical issues.  Our fish our doing very well, even though our numbers are way down from previous years.  Fish are healthy and feeding constantly.  Interesting thing has happened this year - despite all experimental expectations - the lab tank fish are much bigger than the room tank fish.  On May 5 and 6, classes completed a mass sample of the two tanks using a random sample of ten trout.  The room tank came out with an average of 5.92 grams, while the lab tank came out to an average of 10.35 grams.  We are working through possible rationales, and will try and set the tanks up differently to compare results.

Release day is scheduled for May 27, and students will be taking part in numerous activities.  We will have an electrofishing demonstration, a macroinvertebrate sampling, tree planting and the trout release.  Look for more information later.