The empty fish tanks soon to be filled with lively, colourful, aquatic creatures. The sound of running water and the excited chatter of students fill the building. Aquaculture is a class that digs deep into the lives of fish and other water creatures, focusing on fish biology and water life.
This year is Mr. Watkins 2nd year teaching aquaculture. He has done stuff for fisheries and fish research for 10 years, he even taught a wildlife biology class in the past.
Aquaculture is one of those classes that people take for just that easy credit or a filler class and don’t actually take it seriously at all. He’s been wanting to push to get an aquaculture 2 class which would be more hands-on.
Aquaculture has many benefits for people who want to go into college for marine biology, zoology, or other animal sciences. Some are working with aquatic animals, and this class goes more in depth of learning about that than most of the other classes at Fremont . It’s especially good for students who have a passion for marine and aquatic life.
“If you’re passionate about something, or interested in something, you’ll endure the tough times that come as you try to get that job or your college experience you want. You’ll endure,” Mr. Watkins stated.
The class definitely has its hardships–the assignments, the reality of losing fish and missing important lectures or things they do in class when students miss a day, but it will always be worth it in the end for those that are in the class to pursue an interest.
There are also many topics that they learn that aren’t mainly about fish that are taught. One of which could be for people who are interested in both fish and plants and could use those skills together. Aquaponics is when students use their fish tank or water to grow plants. They also learn about taxonomy, the different types of species of fish and other aquatic creatures. They learn about the history of Aquaculture, why it was invented and why it’s still a big part of the world now.
When students join this class, they also have the opportunity to join on very fun field trips. Some examples are electro fishing, a type of learning where you stun the fish and get data from them, a kokanee salmon hike and hatcheries.
The Aqua building also has a back room where students go and have their own tank sometimes–there’s blue tubs filled with trout. The Aquaculture classes are able to handle and look at the trout while also socializing and learning about the fish during class.
The class is a very outdoorsy type of class, as mentioned earlier, students have the opportunity to go on field trips, one of which is electrofishing, where you’re able to have a more hands-on learning by going and stunning the fish so you can weigh and handle them to gather data. Aquaculture is a very nature based class, of course focusing on the aquatic aspect of things, it’s still very nature based. In the class you learn about other types of animals, mammals, birds, and insects.
FFA is also very supportive of Aquaculture, which is a part of FFA. It can be agricultural, aquaponics (food production) which is a form of agriculture.
Some students that have an interest in fishy related things, more-so than others, can talk to Mr. Watkins about being a TA for him, where you’re able to have projects, being a TA is only available for seniors, you’re able to talk to him about it closer to the end of your junior year.
All in all, Aquaculture can be a very helpful and useful class to those who are interested and passionate about the stuff taught in the class, students can meet new people, socialize and even go out and do hands-on projects with their tanks.
