Downton Lake is already stocked with rainbow trout. (submitted photo/Jaimie Mack)

By Derek Cornet

environmental education

CCHS students release rainbow trout in Downton Lake

Jun 27, 2019 | 12:40 PM

Students at Churchill Community High School were given a firsthand view of the life cycle of rainbow trout after raising them in a classroom and releasing them in Downton Lake.

It’s the second year Grade 8 students have participated in the Fish for Schools program, which is led by science teacher Jaimie Mack. She said the experiment began in January when they received 100 fish eggs that needed to be kept in a cold, dark place to simulate natural conditions. The class was only able to look at the eggs for a few minutes each day until the are released from the hatchery and into the tank when they are ready.

“The kids get a chance to see the whole life cycle and get a chance to learn the environmental conditions that are good for the fish,” Mack said. “As soon as most of them start hatching, we release them in the tank and they hide for a while before coming back out. We start feeding them when they start swimming up looking for food.”

The program has a number of aspects beneficial for their learning of the curriculum including cells and cell division, reproduction, the water system and maintaining and healthy ecosystem. Development is a large part of the curriculum in Mack’s Grade 9 science class, so those students learn by watching the fish grow as well. The rainbow trout were kept in the tank until June 25 when a group of 35 students released them into Downton Lake by accessing it through the Nut Point hiking trail.

Downton Lake has been the spot where the fish have been released each year because Mack noted rainbow trout aren’t native to Saskatchewan and they need to be released into a stocked lake. If the fish were released into a lake without any rainbow trout already, it could disturb the ecosystem. Mack plans to do the program again next January.

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Grade 8 students from CCHS were involved in the release. (submitted photo/Jaimie Mack)

“We had the fish in a cooler, and we hiked them up through the Nut Point trail and turned off down to Downton Lake,” she said. “Last year, we just released them with a couple of students because we took a boat. We still released them into Downton Lake. This year we decided to hike them in so more students could participate.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno