The ones that got away
Normally, the 450 rainbow trout hatched and raised at the aquatics lab at Chatham University's Eden Hall campus in Gibsonia are served in the school's cafeteria, sold to restaurants, smoked or used to teach fish anatomy.
Then along came the coronavirus pandemic, which emptied the schools and restaurants that would normally use the fish.
So Roy Weitzell, director of the aquatics lab and a sustainability programs instructor at Chatham, decided to donate 300 of the foot-long trout to Thorn Creek in Penn Township. Another 100 fish raised at the aquatics lab went to 412 Food Rescue in Pittsburgh.
“We had all these fish and nothing to do with them,” Weitzell said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Weitzell and Dave Andrews, instructional coach for student engagement in the Butler Area School District, placed about 100 fish at a time into an aerated transportation tank and drove them to a private property along the creek.
The fish were scooped from the tank and placed into water-filled buckets, and the property owner drove the buckets in his UTV through the cold mud and down to the creek.
There, Weitzell said, the fish were placed into float cages along the creek's edge.
Once the property owner had made about 20 trips from the tank in his driveway to the creek, all the fish awaited release by Weitzell and Andrews.
Weitzell explained the men would pull the float traps downstream and release the trout in various spots.
Andrews said tracking carried out during a previous fish release revealed the fish disperse in all directions.
“They're looking for food and shelter,” Weitzell said.
Normally, students from Chatham and Butler would accompany the men as the fish were released, but the pandemic protocol prevented it.
“I'd rather have the students here to help,” said Andrews, who is also affiliated with the Connoquenessing Watershed Alliance. “They've worked hard all year to grow the fish, and they can't see the end product.”
Weitzell said his students also would be learning about preparing the fish for consumption in the student cafeterias and restaurants.
“Well, the bald eagles will enjoy them,” Weitzell said of the trout being released.
Andrews said he and his son saw a bald eagle as they fished recently along the banks of Thorn Creek.
“It's showing the health of the stream,” he said.
Weitzell said he cannot afford to continue the rainbow trout program without students, or the restaurants and student cafeterias who use them. But he was glad the release will support fishing and an increased population of rainbow trout in Thorn Creek.
“This is a great opportunity to help out different projects, be it conservation or feeding people who are hungry,” he said.
