Yep, spent the day "squeezing fish" which was the description one of the clerical help at the Nature Center called it.
To clarify most of this, I volunteer at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Occasionally we get opportunities to work "off premises," for credit hours, and today it was at the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. It meant we were going to collect eggs and sperm from Rainbow Trout. The hatchery does this at least twice a year, but for whatever reason, they've been collecting, successfully, since last September, with a small break. They have over a million fish at this hatchery and they supply other hatcheries and encampments over the state.
The process is to first catch the fish and transport them to holding tanks. This was done the day before. They are herded into two pools, one for males, one for females. The fish are "cut out" into small groups, and then netted out a few at a time, and put into an anesthetic bath, which puts them to sleep in about a minute. They are then caught, rinsed off, dried, and a small sample is taken, and if it looks good (viable in the case of the eggs) the sperm or eggs are then collected, though "squeezing" along their sides.
The fish are then weighed, returned to a salt water bath to restabillize them, and then sent back to a separate breeding tank down their own personal water slide! They are quarantined for at least 3 weeks before they go back into the general population, so the anesthesia is out of their systems. If they do not possess the qualities thought to be necessary for breeding again, they are put into a different tank, to be released into the wild, after their own 3 week quarantine, as potential game fish. I can say there were some big trout that went into the "fishing tank," but over all not many went.
The water was very cold, as that's the kind trout do best in, so we had numb hands for a while. Of course boots, and waders, or at least some sort of waterproof apron/jacket is a necessity. And take it from me, a partially anesthesized 3 pound trout can be very hard to hold on to! But this is a job I could learn to love!
My camera ran out of battery power, so I couldn't document the whole process. And no, that's not me, that's one of the other volunteers. Krystal, who went with me. I hope to go back, and then I can show how the eggs are fertilized and managed after the collection. Fun, fun!
To clarify most of this, I volunteer at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Occasionally we get opportunities to work "off premises," for credit hours, and today it was at the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. It meant we were going to collect eggs and sperm from Rainbow Trout. The hatchery does this at least twice a year, but for whatever reason, they've been collecting, successfully, since last September, with a small break. They have over a million fish at this hatchery and they supply other hatcheries and encampments over the state.
The process is to first catch the fish and transport them to holding tanks. This was done the day before. They are herded into two pools, one for males, one for females. The fish are "cut out" into small groups, and then netted out a few at a time, and put into an anesthetic bath, which puts them to sleep in about a minute. They are then caught, rinsed off, dried, and a small sample is taken, and if it looks good (viable in the case of the eggs) the sperm or eggs are then collected, though "squeezing" along their sides.
The fish are then weighed, returned to a salt water bath to restabillize them, and then sent back to a separate breeding tank down their own personal water slide! They are quarantined for at least 3 weeks before they go back into the general population, so the anesthesia is out of their systems. If they do not possess the qualities thought to be necessary for breeding again, they are put into a different tank, to be released into the wild, after their own 3 week quarantine, as potential game fish. I can say there were some big trout that went into the "fishing tank," but over all not many went.
My camera ran out of battery power, so I couldn't document the whole process. And no, that's not me, that's one of the other volunteers. Krystal, who went with me. I hope to go back, and then I can show how the eggs are fertilized and managed after the collection. Fun, fun!
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