Friday, Feb. 26th, Wade Thomas School teachers, Claudia Holko and Tina Clinton, became the first of the 49 classrooms to release the trout that they raised from eggs in their classrooms into the MMWD watershed. Classes will be releasing their fish over the next two weeks. The 2010 Trout in the Classroom programs kicked off when trout eggs were delivered on January 26th to the classrooms from the Napa hatchery.  Chuck Schultz coordinated over 20 NBTU volunteers to make deliveries to the 48 classrooms located in Marin County and San Francisco.  Each classroom received approximately 35 eggs which began hatching on February 9th.  The volunteers and teachers had set up the aquariums with water temperatures between 52 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit the week prior to receiving the eggs.

It was an exciting day for the students and the teachers when the eggs were delivered and carefully dispensed, by each student, into the aquariums.  The eggs were already eyed out so the students saw the eggs in a life stage and even more exciting as they hatched into fish attached to an egg sac.  The students will care for their fish and the tank before releasing them into a stream below Lagunitas Creek, in four to six weeks, while teachers and volunteers, who have received training by the DFG in coordination with NBTU, will prepare lessons on proper habitat and conservation techniques necessary for fish to survive.