Pupils release their trout into the Meikle Water

For the second year in a row, release day on Stronsay couldn’t have happen on a better day! A bright sun was out and the surface of the Meikle Water was more like a sheet of glass…
Mrs Denisson’s class walked down to the bank of the loch and once all the 150 or so  small fish had been transferred into small poly bags, it was time to let them swim freely into their new environment which seemed very welcoming on such a gorgeous spring day!
Our next mission was to try and find out what the newly stocked fry would be feeding on for the next few years: nets, trays and magnifying glasses came out and soon,  the pupils were bringing back some very interesting tiny creatures: water beetles, fresh water shrimps, water boatmen (corixa), stone fly larvae, caddis larvae and a type of flatworm, not yet identified.
After a very enjoyable afternoon, with the calls of greylag geese and oyster-catchers in the background, it was time to catch the minibus back to school.
Well done to the Stronsay pupils for carefully looking after the small trout and once more, achieving to bring to fry stage most of the ova (around 95%) the school received back in early February!

Mr P.

For more posts on our trout project, visit the "Troot in the Shed"  blog by clicking on:

http://trootintheshed.wordpress.com/