New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
Media contact: Rachel Shockley, (505) 476-8071; cell: (505) 470-6832
Public contact: (888) 248-6866
rachel.shockley@state.nm.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, MAY 9, 2014
NEW MEXICO STUDENTS SET TO RELEASE TROUT RAISED IN THE CLASSROOM
ALBUQUERQUE –Northern New Mexico students are readying to release hundreds of rainbow trout fingerlings into the wild.
The students raised the fish from eggs as part of the Trout in the Classroom Program. The students care for the fish throughout the year and teachers use the fish to help teach biology, chemistry, math and writing. When the students release the fish they are about an inch and a half long.
About a dozen New Mexico schools are involved, with additional schools joining each year. The department supplies fish eggs, a chiller unit to keep the water cold and a department biologist visits each class to teach them about the fish. The national conservation organization Trout Unlimited developed the program as a way to bring nature into the classroom.
The Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited helped organize three upcoming releases.
Albuquerque area eighth graders from 21st Century Academy, and their parents, will release rainbow trout into the Pecos River at the Dalton fishing access site at about 11 a.m., Saturday, May 10.
Albuquerque area third graders from Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School, parents, and volunteers will release fish into the ponds at Tingly Beach at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 14. The group will tour the Bosque after the release.
Nearly 100 Santa Fe area seventh graders from El Dorado Community School will release fish into the Pecos River near the Bert Clancy fishing and recreation area at about 11 a.m. Friday, May 16. Volunteers from the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited, residents of Pecos, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish staff and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees will be on hand to teach the students about aquatic insects, healthy rivers and trout biology.
For more information about the Trout in the Classroom program, and how schools can get involved, please contact Kevin Holladay, Department of Game and Fish aquatic education coordinator, (505) 476-8095.
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