Just think!
Every year students from Mr. Milner's class in Kaslo go out to
Meadow Creek, at the north end of Kootenay Lake to collect the eggs of
mature Kokanee (land-locked sockeye salmon).
And every year students from all over the Kootenays put those tiny
eggs into fish tanks in their schools, raise them and then release
them into local streams.
These pages tell the story of our adventures with raising
Kokanee.
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This graph, based on information
provided, was created by the girls using Excel. |
THE J. V. HUMPHREYS CONNECTION
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Mr.Milner's Grade 4/5 Kokanee Hatch
Written by Tori - based in information from an
interview
Mr. Milner's class at J.V. Humphries School in Kaslo
received 100 Kokanee eggs. The whole school was involved in this
exciting hatch. All together they got 800 eggs, but no eggs hatched in
Mr. Milner's class because of a sudden water temperature change that
may have killed the eggs. Others classes' eggs did hatch though.
The Kaslo students got their eggs from Meadow Creek. Some
other schools including Wynndel Elementary, Redfish Elementary and
Erickson Elementary also got their eggs from the same creek.
Mr. Milner's class went to Meadow Creek to get their eggs.
At the creek, a fish biologist scooped a female and male spawner.
First the biologist held the female and stroked her stomach gently to
make eggs come out and fall into a plastic bowl. Then the biologist
held the male and gently stroked his belly until sperm came out of him
and fell into the bowl. A student from the class stirred the eggs and
sperm together.
After stirring, the bowl was put under an umbrella in the
shade so the sunlight would not damage the eggs or dry them. The eggs
were returned to the school and put into the class aquarium. |
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Here are some pictures of Mr. Milner's students
catching mature Kokanee and harvesting the eggs that we all
use in our own schools. |
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| (Photographs used with
permission. More information can be seen at the J V Humphreys
website - See link below.) |
THE REDFISH CONNECTION
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One place that the eggs are hatched is at Redfish
Elementary. Mrs. Blair's students found out that Kokanee
means "red fish" in the Kutenai language. We
think it's so cool that both the school, and the creek beside it, are
named "red fish". We have learned that both sockeye
salmon and
Kokanee turn bright red when they are spawning, so the name makes a
lot of sense. |
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This is a picture of Redfish Creek. Mrs. Blair's
students help to keep the creek clean so that the Kokanee have a good
chance to survive. We think it's neat that the school is
so close to the creek. We have to take a bus trip to Summit
Creek, where we release our fry, so it's hard for us to check on them.
Photo used with permission. |
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Redfish Kokanee News
by Carling, Danielle, Shelby
and Mrs. Blair
We bought a new fish tank this
year. Last year all our fry died because the copper leaked into the
fish tank! We had a refrigeration unit hooked up to a copper probe
and after a few years the copper leaked out. We felt very sad. Our
new fish tank is a mini ocean marine aquarium. We have a thermostat
that controls the temperature so it does not fluctuate. It also has
an internal air pump and filtration system. It has thick acrylic
panels, which are great for insulation. This tank can be used for
tropical fish too. It was very expensive (over $3000) but it works
really well. We kept our water at about 6 degrees Celsius.
So far we have
had one small problem where we lost about 6 fish. The swim up fry
went through the holes of the filter system and got trapped. My
teacher put some screen over the holes before we lost our entire swim
up fry. |
THE ERICKSON CONNECTION
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This is a picture of Summit Creek, where we released
our Kokanee fry. It's a beautiful, clear stream with lots of
clean gravel - a perfect habitat for young Kokanee to grow a little
before they head out to Kootenay Lake. Summit Creek is on the
west side of the Creston Valley and south of Kootenay Lake.
About 77% of all the eggs started in
Creston-area schools develop into fry that then are released into this
creek.
You can see more photographs of us releasing the fry
into Summit Creek by following the link below. |
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Erickson Kokanee News
by Charlotte, Alex and Nicole
Last year our fish tank got too cold, so we turned it
off for the weekend. Slim came to clean it out because we thought all
the fish were dead. When we opened the tank, we were surprised to see
that some fish were swimming around. Ms. Wood, our teacher, screamed
and we were amazed. We called it “Our Fish Miracle”.
This year some of our fry died because the water
temperature changed too much from cold to warm. Slim said that quick
changes in temperature stress the fish and that affects their
hatching. |
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By following the links below, you will also learn
about :
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| You can learn more about Mr. Milner's
students Kokanee studies by visiting their website:
"CLASSY
KOKANEE" |
CLICK HERE
to visit our Australian page |
You can learn more about Mrs. Blair's
students work on the Kokanee project by visiting their website:
"KATY
KOKANEE'S SCHOOL" |
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