My wife said the whole process sounded like a Pony Express delivery from the 1800s. Only it wasn’t mail that was being delivered — it was rainbow trout eggs.
On the evening of Feb. 11, a batch of freshly fertilized eggs was shipped by truck during a snow storm from a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish hatchery in northern New Mexico at Mora to another NMDG&F hatchery a little further south in Pecos. The next morning, another truck took the eggs from the Pecos hatchery to a distribution point in Albuquerque. From there, the eggs headed south to Ruidoso and then what was left went to Alamogordo.
I’ve written a couple of blogs earlier about the project at White Mountain Elementary School to allow third graders to watch the process of how trout eggs hatch into fry, then grow into adult-sized fish and then get released into local clean cold waters somewhere in the vicinity of Ruidoso. Alamogordo High School is doing a similar program in a science class.
Despite my concerns about the tight delivery schedule and the snow storm, the eggs showed up on time ready to be placed in the 55-gallon tank in the third-grade classroom of teacher Michelle Thurston. The NMDG&F delivered 35 healthy looking peach-colored eggs about half the size of salmon eggs.
Thurston and the other enthusiastic third grade teachers came up with the idea to participate in Trout Unlimited’s “Trout in the Classroom” (TIC) program, which is designed to help young students understand the importance of clean cold-water streams and lakes in the United States. They held fund-raisers to buy most of the equipment needed to raise the fish. The equipment includes a chiller to keep the water temperature at a steady 45-55 degrees, a water filter, an aerator to keep the water oxygenated and various chemicals to test the quality of the water. As secretary of the Gila/Rio Grande Chapter of Trout Unlimited, I volunteered to help facilitate the program and donated the 55- gallon tank to the school.
And so, like an anxious father, I’m awaiting news of the hatch, which should happen in about two and one-half weeks. I’ll send out a birth announcement and maybe smoke a cigar in celebration.
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