Galena High School’s Honors Ecology and Natural Resources classes went on a field trip to Lake Carroll Fishery where they hatch walleye. When GHS arrived at the fishery they were greeted by the volunteer workers who devote their time to nurturing the walleye until they grow to a self-sufficient age.

The students started off with a quick group picture with the volunteers before heading inside. The fishery provided bags of cookies for the students before they sat down to learn what the Lake Carroll Fishery was all about. Students watched a video that explained the process of how the fishery raised walleye from fry (young fish) to fingerlings (slightly older fish), and then once they mature into adults they are released into the lake to fend for themselves.

After gaining some insight and background knowledge from the video, GHS students were split into smaller groups with a volunteer in charge of each group. The groups went around to different stations and learned about key steps in the fisheries process. The volunteers did an incredible job going into depth about what their jobs were and explaining other things such as: what the walleye eat, how they collect data on the number of walleye, and how they fertilize the walleye eggs.

Caleb Soat ‘23 enjoyed the field trip, “My favorite station was when they gave us a sheet of paper with various types of fish on them and we had to label them.”
The field trip was wrapped up after lunch at a nearby ski lodge prepared by volunteers from the fishery.

The Ecology and Natural Resources classes not only had a good time, they learned lots of new information and had an incredible lunch.