Students from Mission Bay High School, participating in Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute\u2019s “Seabass in\u00a0the Classroom” (SITC) program on June 6, released 25 tagged juvenile white sea bass into local waters to restore healthy population levels.
\nHubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) research scientist and SITC program coordinator Mike Shane delivered the fish that were ultimately released into Mission Bay to Mission Bay High School in March as part of Mission Bay High School\u2019s inaugural STEM education program. Mission Bay High School is one of five local school programs that have benefited from expansion of the Institute\u2019s SITC program this last year, thanks to ongoing support of SDG&E and private local donors and partners.\u00a0
\nThe SITC program incorporates a hands-on learning experience into school science curriculum and couples it with field activities related to the release of cultured marine fish.
\nThe program teaches the students about aquaculture and stock enhancement by growing, feeding, tagging and finally releasing the fish into local waters. Once released, the students\u2019 cultured seabass are tracked by tags embedded in their cheeks.\u00a0
\nThis HSWRI program is part of the Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program (OREHP). OREHP is the\u00a0result of an extraordinary partnership between California resource agencies, public-utility companies, sportsfishing groups and the scientific community to restore the depleted populations of recreationally and commercially important marine fish.\u00a0
\nFrom the 1950s to the 1980s, annual party boat catches of white seabass in California dropped from more than 55,000 to\u00a0less than 3,500. Partly as a result of that, the OREHP Advisory Panel identified white seabass in 1983 as the most appropriate species to initiate this long-term research program. Since program funding is\u00a0generated by fishing-license fees north of the Mexican border and south of Point Arguello, HSWRI\u2019s fish culture, tag-and-release and assessment activities are focused in Southern California.
\nBecause of private donor support, funding from public-utility companies and the ongoing support of sportfishers and\u00a0sportfish-ing groups, OREHP releases thousands of fish each year. On Aug. 21, HSWRI released its 2\u00a0millionth white seabass. Adult fish have been recovered up to 13 years after release and more than 350 miles from\u00a0their release site.
\nThe SITC project at Mission Bay High School began when marine biology teacher Steve Walters and Bill Jones \u2014 a graduate student from Scripps Institute of Oceanography \u2014 started talking about how to bring science into the classroom.
\nThey were both part of a National Science Foundation project called GK-12, and they agreed that the white sea bass project was a perfect STEM idea. “The students performed the chemistry, feeding, measurements of the fish and monitored and cleaned the tank,” said Jones. “We also took a field trip up to the hatchery in Carlsbad, then we did a tour of SIO and had pizza on the pier. It was a great day and the students enjoyed the program,” he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students from Mission Bay High School, participating in Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute\u2019s “Seabass in\u00a0the Classroom” (SITC) program on June 6, released 25 tagged juvenile white sea bass into local waters to restore healthy population levels. Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) research scientist and SITC program coordinator Mike Shane delivered the fish that were ultimately released into Mission […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":260650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"In the Schools","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}