Students Hooked on Trout Rearing

Students at Whakatane High are becoming pretty successful at rearing trout – with help from the experts.

The Year 12 marine studies students grow the trout in their own aquarium which is kept chilled to the cool 12 degrees that trout favour – and it’s all perfectly legal. Fish & Game officers at the trout hatchery in Ngongotaha (Rotorua) have issued a special permit and given lots of help.

The course prepares students for the Year 13 marine studies course, which can then lead school leavers on to tertiary level marine or science studies at Bay of Plenty Polytech and universities like Otago.

Whakatane High’s Head of Science Peter Fergusson says they first raised trout in the classroom last year in a trial run, after looking around for species that would be suitable. He had looked at what other schools were doing, including a ‘trout in schools’ programme in the U.S., and Queen Charlotte College in Picton, where students study salmon farming.

Fish & Game’s hatchery staff provided the trout eggs (fertilised eggs known as eye ova - the eyes visible) and “we got 50 to 60 releasable trout from 100 eggs,” the trout growing to about seven or eight centimetres in size before they were returned to Fish & Game to release into a Rotorua lake.

The school managed to gain a grant to help with the cost of equipment including a large 1.2 metre long aquarium equipped with its own chiller. Fish & Game officers have provided the school with commercial-grade fish food they use themselves at the hatchery, to ensure the trout are on the right diet. “We were pleased to help,” says Fish & Game Officer Mark Sherburn, “we do quite a lot with schools providing educational resources, tours of the hatchery and so on. Some of these students might go on to work in the Aquaculture industry, possibly even with trout or salmon”.

Peter Fergusson says the students gain valuable experience in aquaculture techniques as they have to keep a close eye on factors such as water quality, using test kits. “And they take a keen interest in their charges as they’re growing.”

“There are some kids are not natural scientists, but they like fishing and hunting – that sort of stuff. For us, it (marine studies) helps attract more students into the sciences.”

“If you’re going to make the sciences relevant, you have to have some hands on stuff,” Peter says.

Students are also raising sea fish such as trevally and parore in other saltwater tanks.