Salmon in the Classroom

As the school term comes to an end so did the 2009 Salmon in the Classroom project. Nineteen schools participated in the project in 2009 involving a total of over 450 pupils. The project aims to foster an interest in rivers and the wild life they support so hopefully we will have a few budding biologists in a few years time.

An innovation for 2009 was the salmon lifecyle ruler which was given to each pupil. Ther rulers also proved to be very popular with teachers and school office staff and it often  difficult to leave the school without the box of rulers being emptied.

The last school field trip was with Towerlands Primary in Irvine. They had previously released their fry in the Annick Water and a repeat visit was made for an electrofishing demonstration and bug hunting to assess the health of the river.

Five species of fish were found during the electrofishing demo including brown trout, salmon, eels, stone loach and minnows. The eels are always a favourite with the pupils and it was great to see attitutes to this much maligned fish change during the fish identification section.

Caitlin de Falco isn't quite sure what to make of this eel!

 The other schools participating in 2009 were Pinwherry, Colmonell, Barrhill, Barr, Ballantrae, Hillhead (Kilmarnock), Mauchline, Kingcase (Prestwick), Monkton, Wellington (Ayr), Logan, Drongan, Ochiltree, Straiton, Cairn (Maybole), Pennyland and Corsehill (Kilwinning) and Glengarnock (Kilbirnie).