WOODBURY — Nonnewaug’s ag program includes aquaculture, which is farming of aquatic life like fish and shellfish.
Lots of improvements have been done since last year, like organization and less maintenance with more focus on teaching students the importance of aquaculture. Specifically, classes shifted to model more of an industry setting for life out of high school.
Leanne Foster is the third-year aquaculture teacher here at Nonnewaug.
“This year we’re focusing a lot on the ornamental aquaculture fish industry and then we’re also going to be looking a lot into like crawfish, prawn, shrimp and then hopefully have a pretty cool crawfish boil at the end of the year an hopefully adding more trips into the year as well.”
One main challenge that the junior/senior class had to face last year was the four tank recirculating system, as well as multiple signal systems.
“The recirculating systems were rebuilt last year,” says senior aquaculture student Chloe Walsh. “Now we have room for further expansion like more tanks for more diverse species of fish.”
There’s always a catch when improving on anything: It’s the cost.
“Every class is given a budget,” says Foster. “I would say that I think of course anyone would want endless amounts of money just to put into their program but I think it just means that we’re able to focus on what specific things we might need.”
Even with the limited funds, Foster finds ways to keep her classes engaged and teach them the importance of aquaculture and its role in the food industry.
“It doesn’t hold us back,” Foster adds. “That just forces us to be a little more creative in what we do.”
Every student is different when it comes to creativity. Every idea is unique.
“I was in charge of building a single system tank. We didn’t have a filter for the system so we used pieces that were lying around,” says senior aquaculture student Karisa Cizauskas. “I had to cut a trash can in half and use the bottom half, then measured to build a stand that hugged the garbage can for extra support. Then eventually connected everything together then placed a filter pads from a previous tank and it held.”
