Bessemer students release brookies into Massie Pond

By TOM STANKARD

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Bessemer - To encourage fishing at Massie Pond in Bluff Valley Park, David Rowe's 10th grade biology class stocked 23 brook trout into the four-foot deep pond Tuesday morning in continuation of a "real-life" biology experiment.

In October, Rowe, an A.D. Johnston High School biology teacher, conducted a fish census with his class to estimate the population at the 1.5-acre pond, using a capture/recapture method. Students captured other species of fish in box nets and counted fish larger than four inches.

Then the students clipped a small piece off the top of the tail before putting the panfish back into the pond.

The next day, students conducted the same process. This time, however, there were some fish that were "new" and some that were recaptured.

To find out the total population, Rowe said students multiplied the catch from day one by the total from day two, and then divided the number of marked fish captured on day two.

In all, Rowe said there were about 618 white suckers, 135 pumpkinseeds and 54 bluegills.

On Tuesday, the biology class continued its experiment by stocking 23 15-inch brookies into the pond. The trout were provided by the Iron River National Fish Hatchery.

Holding a fishing net, Carey Edwards, of the hatchery, put the fish into buckets filled with water.

Before students stocked the fish, Rowe said the trout were temporally pale-colored because they were transported inside a blue tank.

"(Brook trout) tend to take on the color of their environment," Rowe said. "It's like catching a fish in clear water at Lake Superior and it's kind of silver."

One-one-one, students grabbed a bucket and dumped the fish into pond.

Serenity Plochocki said she enjoyed leaving the classroom and "getting hands-on experience."

Rowe partnered with Roger Greil, of Lake Superior State University, Nick Starzl, of the hatchery, and George Madison from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, to arrange the event.

Rowe said the trout will not likely survive very long because they need cold water, but he hopes stocking the pond will generate interest in fishing to get children outdoors. A few lucky youngsters will earn bragging rights by catching the big brookies.

"We have this asset that can potentially benefit the whole community," Rowe said.

In the future, he hopes the pond will be excavated to make it deeper and to have traps put in to capture run-off sediment.