2ND GRADERS FREE FISH THEY RAISED FROM EGGS
Students from Frank Zeek Elementary School released about 100 small steelhead into Orr Creek at Low Gap Park Friday, and sent each tiny trout off with a sincere wish for them to be successful in their next stage of life.
“Dear Sally, I hope you have a good trip to the ocean, and I hope you don't get caught by a fisherman. Stay alive, live a good life,” wrote Rilynn to the steelhead trout fry she released.
When asked if she knew anyone named Sally that she had named the fish after, Rilynn shyly shook her head.
Another student with a wish for her fish was Nyema, who told the fry she named “French Fry” that she hoped “you will not get killed by an electric eel. Stay at the bottom or an (eagle) can catch you. You must be hidden or a (bear) can claw you, so be careful out there.”
Their teacher, Kathy Rawles, said she picked up 50 eggs from the hatchery at Lake Mendocino in mid-march, and within a week and a half the fish had emerged from their eggs to become alevin. Once the fish absorb their egg sacs they become fry, the stage all the fish were in for their release Friday.
Rawles, who took a class to become certified in order to be given eggs to raise, said the class had until May 11 in order to release their fish, as long as they are in the right stage in their development.
“Also, there has to be enough water in the creek,” she said, explaining that last year when her class was ready to release their baby trout, there wasn't enough water in nearby Orr Creek, which the kids can walk to from their classroom. So last spring, she said, they drove to the Russian River at Perkins Street in order to release their fry.
“This year we wanted to do it earlier while there was still water in the creek,” she said.
Since only two of the trout died, Rawles said her class released 48 tiny fishes Friday morning, and she guessed that fellow teacher Jack Murphy released “at least 50.”
“He lives and breathes fish, so I'm sure his did better,” she said with a laugh, adding that a third teacher whose class also raised trout would be releasing fry into the creek this weekend.