Fish & Game praise for trout doco students

Fish & Game praise for trout doco students

Eastern Fish & Game has praised Kaitao Middle School students for their efforts – in filming a documentary comparing wild trout with ones raised at the Ngongotaha hatchery.

Manager Rob Pitkethley says their officers take seriously the role they play in educating people about trout and game birds – and getting across some environmental messages about the need to protect their habitats.

“Fish & Game officers do everything from dissecting trout in a science class situation, to running kids ‘fish out’ days and helping film crews – including some rather youthful ones.”

Mr Pitkethley says that the sort of students involved in these projects are often the scientists or Fish & Game officers of the future. “So we’re only too pleased to put up our experts to talk about the hatchery and show people around – it’s very much a win-win.

“In this era of social media we recognise the importance of twitter and Facebook and videos, and this documentary is exactly the sort of thing we use on our Facebook.”

The students’ teacher Cameron Fowler says they made their documentary in Term 3, and entered it in the Media and Digital Excellence Awards (MADE Awards).

Students filmed at the hatchery for the documentary focused on the life cycle of trout, “comparing the naturally born trout and the hatchery-raised trout.

“The facts that were uncovered during this investigation opened the eyes of the students to how fragile the trout ecosystem really is.”

Mr Fowler says they also became aware of the importance of Fish & Game in the care and replenishment of trout stocks throughout the Bay of Plenty. “This is a vital part to keep our world class sports fishing opportunities available to all people.”

He says that while their documentary didn’t place in the competition “we believe we’ve created a well-structured and informative documentary that Fish & Game may be able to use in the education of children about our trout habitats and life cycle.”

Mr Fowler says they appreciated the opportunity to create the documentary and have extended their grateful thanks to Fish & Game Ngongotaha Hatchery for allowing the school to film there.

The Kaitao Middle School students who filmed and produced the documentary were: Caitlyn Muggleton (editor), Paris Maxwell, Stephanie Bracken, Summer Jenkins, Tamsyn Ellery, Andrew Herniman, Sativa Square-Buckley and Issac Boielle under the guidance of teacher Cameron Fowler.

ENDS

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