Looks like I'm going to have an opportunity to get into the Inner City with
some native fish. A good friend of mine is the Honors director at the
University of Toledo... Her seniors' education project is at an Inner City
elementary, and did a Finding Nemo kind of theme with the kids. They wanted
to do a freshwater tank and I was asked to help out with that... But guess
what ol' Famertodd is gonna drop in there? We don't need no stinkin'
heaters! :)
Inner City kiddos and Honors Seniors. What a great audience! I'm excited!
:)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Scharpf" <ichthos_at_comcast.net>
To: "NANFA e-mail list" <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 6:29 PM
Subject: NANFA-- visit to VTU
> Tuesday and Wednesday I had the pleasure of being an invited guest of the
> Virginia Tech Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. Tuesday night I
> gave my slide presentation on North American freshwater fish diversity to
an
> appreciative audience. On Wednesday I had an hour-long meeting with one
the
> fisheries professors discussing ways to increase awareness of our
beleagured
> natives. (Some of you may recall that VTU produced the stunning "Swimming
in
> Troubled Waters" poster and video a few years back.)
>
> Also on Wednesday I toured their aquaculture facility. One building houses
> their endangered mussel breeding operation. They weren't breeding mussels
> just yet (they need to wait until later in the spring to go out and
collect
> broodstock). But they were acclimating several tanks of darters (lots of
> gilt darter), rainbow trout, and hogsuckers as hosts for the mussel
> glochidia. It was interesting to see the lengths they were going through
in
> order to keep the water cool. They also grow LOTS of green water to feed
the
> mussels.
>
> Another, larger building is where they're conducting several nutrition and
> grow-out trials. One room had tank after tank of hatchery raised summer
> flounder (the flounder served in restaurants and sold at seafood markets).
> VTU is developing a prepared feed for the flounder, and are testing
> different formula to see which one makes the flounder grow faster, bigger
> and healthier. They're also experimenting with different color tanks (red,
> blue, black, green, etc.) to see if one color or another facilitates the
> growth of the color-sensitive fish. In fact, they were painting the tanks
> while I was there. Imagine taking a 10-gallon tank and literally painting
> it, glass and all.
>
> A larger room, the size of a small warehouse, housed large fiberglass
tanks
> and raceways for aquaculture experiments involving cobia, tilapia, striped
> bass, and yellow perch. One potential use of the yellow perch is for
> eventual introduction into the Great Lakes (should the zebra mussel
problem
> ever be solved).
>
> Other rooms housed horseshoe crabs and "golden" trout (an albino form of
> rainbow trout that some anglers like to catch).
>
> With an on-campus hotel, passionate and engergized faculty and students,
and
> nearby access to lots of great streams, it struck me that VTU would be a
> perfect place for a NANFA convention. (VTU is in SW VA, about 30 min.
south
> of Roanoke.) In fact, the possibility was briefly discussed. (Hey, Mike
> Thennet, would you be up for investigating the feasability of such? I can
> give you more details offlist.)
>
> Chris Scharpf
> Baltimore
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