Tree planting at Waitahuna
On Tuesday Room 4 and Room 7 and a few parents and teachers went to Waitahuna to do some electric fishing and tree planting. We left at 9:30am.We met some people there, their names were Craig Simpson from Landcare, Keiran and Angus(the electric fisherman), Matt from the Department Conservation, Glenn from the Sinclair Wetlands and two ladies from the Otago Regional Council. We did the tree planting because we wanted to help the fish and the eels that live in the river. We planted flaxes along the river because it is where the eels hide. We had to dig a hole, then we took the plant out of the black bag, and we put it into the hole. Then we covered the hole with mashed up dirt. We stepped on the dirt so that the wind wouldn't blow the plants out. We got into a group of three children and one adult. The two classes planted about 200 flaxes!!!!!!While we were there, Keiran showed us an eel that he had caught in a net he had set overnight. He also showed us electric fishing, which is where you use an electric current to stun the fish, so that they can catch them and look at them more closely. He told us that the bigger the fish, the more effect the electric shock would have on them. He showed us a brown trout and a lamprey eel that he had caught earlier. Lamprey eels are very rare, and it was the first one he had ever seen. Sometimes they are called sucker eel because they don’t have jaw and they just suck.
