Today members of the Jersey Shore Chapter of Trout Unlimited delivered brook trout eggs to schools throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties. At 11 a.m. I met JSTU members Ken and Lloyd who had traveled up to the Pequest Trout Hatchery in Hackettstown earlier this morning to pick up the eggs. The eggs, approximately 150, were counted out and put in sandwich bags labeled with the schools name they were going to. My stops included Lakewood High School, the Manasquan Resovoir Environmental Center and a private school in Farmingdale. The kids were all excited to get their eggs.
The schools have tanks filled with water @ 52 degrees. At first, the eggs are put into a plastic holding bin and placed at the bottom of the aquarium. Each day any dead eggs are fished out and removed to avoid contamination. In about three weeks the eggs will hatch and the students will begin feeding and caring for them until May. Any fish that survive will be released into either the Toms or Manasquan Rivers.
