Mrs. Hill's Environmental Science Students Got to Practice Tagging Fish!

What a remarkable day we had yesterday with our HPHS AP students and the Trout Team including Sean Landsman from the Illinois Natural History Survey, Matt Jennings and Jim Tingey of TU. 

Sean gave us an overview (100,000 years in four slides!) of Great Lakes formation and then launched into the "tasty" part of the presentation:  native, non native and invasive fish species, how they use the lakes, and how scientists such as Sean record their movements in the water.  We learned that monitoring techniques should vary depending on the Research Question being asked.  Some things that fisheries biologists want to know:  how do fish move between harbors; how do fish move to and within spawning habitats, do fish move between different jurisdictions (do they, for example, do they pop over to Canadian waters every now and again?).  Questions like these are important because they inform management practices and also can drive funding for restoration projects! 

Speaking of restoration, Jim and Matt told the students about the Trout in the Classroom program which is going on over at Braeside School.  The fourth grade has been raising baby trout from eggs which are going to be released at Ravine Drive on April 13.  We are looking for a way to track the fish--our Research Question being:  will the fish return to our stream when they are adults (in about three years) to spawn?

Next we gathered around a lab table to practice one method of tagging, which uses a "FLOY" tag and a device very much like the one that stores use to put hanging tags on clothing.  We practiced on minnows called Golden Shiners.  Some of the students even gave it a try.  Afterwards, we cut the tags off the fish and they were released to freedom in the pond at Heller Nature Center.