Trout Study Teaches Water Conservation

ERMA – Rainbow trout are indicators of water pollution because they can only survive in clean water.
Cold water conservation, keeping streams and waterways clear of trash and learning to better take care of the environment are what some students at Lower Cape May Regional High School and the Richard M. Teitelman Middle School will learn this year through the state’s Trout in the Classroom project.
Under the tutelage of Kevin Hildebrandt and Paul Schulte, the students will also use their math and analytical skills to inspect the trout, measure acidity and chemical levels in the water, and monitor the mortality rate.
With a lot of luck, they hope to release a couple of parr, or fingerling trout, into waterways near Jackson in the spring.
“I want to remind you that this program is not about raising trout, it is about cold water conservation,” advised Jessica Giglak, state coordinator for New Jersey Trout in the Classroom. “At the end of the year, if you have one trout, you did a great job. Survival is not high in this program, but that is what we expect. So be prepared to talk about this with your students.
“The tank system is a replication of a trout stream and not the hatchery,” she told instructors in the program via email. “That is a very important difference. In a trout stream, out of 1,000 eggs, only one or two will survive. That is what you should expect. In the hatchery, out of 1,000 eggs, 900 will survive – do not expect that.”
Hildebrandt said his high school math students would be studying the trout’s life cycle from fertilization of the eggs through development to an embryo, then an alevin or sac-fry, to a fingerling when they are three inches long and can be released.
Along the way, students will monitor water temperature of the tanks holding the eggs, measure pH, ammonia and nitrate levels, and determine mortality rates.
“All of these factor into their survival rate,” he noted about the fish. “They are very fragile.”
Schulte said his middle school Backyard Biology students would be doing the same, along with learning about how pollution can affect waterways.
“This is a fun project to help the state while making the students aware of how important it is that we have clean waterways,” he added.
There are 150 classrooms across the state participating in the Trout in the Classroom project through a hands-on approach to learning.
Through the process of raising trout from eggs provided by the Pequest Trout Hatchery, of Oxford, to fingerling size for release, students learn about the importance of clean, cold water, not only for the trout they are raising but also for the other organisms, including people.
On Oct. 10, Hildebrandt and Schulte received about 300 eggs each, although some didn’t survive the ride from the hatchery.
Students immediately counted the eggs, which were about 3.5-4.5 millimeters (or about 1/8 inch, or the diameter of a cell phone’s headphone jack) in diameter.
A week later, some of the eggs were hatching as eyeballs and tails were visible.
The eggs were fertilized Sept. 19. The incubation period lasts from four to seven weeks, depending on the water temperature. Newly hatched rainbow trout feed on the remains of yolk during the first two weeks of life. After that period, they start consuming zooplankton.
“Because they are so fragile, they can’t have any ultraviolet light in the first couple of weeks,” Hildebrandt noted, putting the eggs into a tank with foam core board on all sides. Because the conditions are supposed to replicate the hatchery’s, the water temperature is kept at 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rainbow trout is a member of the salmon family and can be found on all continents except Antarctica today. Rainbow trout are a popular game fish and an important food source for humans.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.