There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but when it comes to streams on the eastern seaboard, there aren’t enough trout in the ecosystem. That’s where the 6th-graders of JHS 278 in Marine Park come in.

Prior to this school year, science teacher Bruce Gamsey had never owned a fish tank in his life. Still, as part of the Trout in the Classroom program, he gamely transformed his classroom into an incubator for 80 trout eggs.

“When we got the eggs, they looked like grapes,” a student named Hannah recalled.

“But they had eyeballs!” her friend Rebekah chimed in.

Their mission was to raise the trout from eggs to alevins to fry to fingerlings so that they could be released into the watershed, where their presence is an important indicator of the quality of New York City’s drinking water.

“Trout are sensitive to changes in the water, so they’re used as a monitoring tool,” Gamsey explained. “If the trout population increases, we know the water is clean.”

But first, the trout — like the 6th-graders — had to survive middle school. Fortunately, Gamsey’s students were more than eager to act as ichthyologists. From October through April, five days a week, six students gladly gave up their lunch periods to tend to the trout.

“They checked the pH, ammonia levels and nitrates of the tank,” said Gamsey. “They cleaned the tank, checked the temperature and checked on how the trout were behaving. And they did it all completely independently.”

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Miller Photography

They took their roles as scientists seriously.

“Nitrites from the filter could turn into nitrates, which are toxic, so we would immediately have to change the filter,” said Rebekah as her fellow trout monitors tested the water in the tank.

But they also couldn’t resist a little bit of anthropomorphism. 

“It’s so cute when they open their mouths,” noted Abby as the trout swam up for their lunch.

They kept “fish journals” monitoring the progress of the trout. In the process, they also learned about life cycles, ecosystems and food chains.

“This brings an ecosystem to life and gives them a vested interest in it,” said Gamsey.

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Maria Bastone

In April, the young scientists accompanied their charges to Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Westchester, where they released the trout into the wild.

“It’s sad because we watched them progress,” Abby said fondly.

“But it’ll be cool to see how they survive without us,” said Hannah.