Rainbow Trout

On Thursday, while volunteering at the hospice shop, Lauren asked if I had been out to Yarrow's Bakeries.  I told her that I had, but she still asked if I wanted to go along, as she was picking up items for our morning tea.  She's about 21 I think, and she seemed keen for me to ride along.  When we got back, Allan asked me if I'd like to visit the trout hatchery with him.  He apologized that he'd not thought of it before, as he'd only just come back from feeding them a few minutes earlier.  He's such a sweet man, and although trout aren't exactly my favorite animal I figured I might as well take the opportunity afforded me, as you never know what else you might stumble upon in the process.  I told him I'd meet him 9am Friday morning to go check it out.

It was a beautiful sunny day morning as we drove about 8 minutes across town and pulled into the Lowe Corporation parking lot.  While not exactly revolting, what they do there is a bit unpleasant, and not related to the trout, so I'll spare you the details.  Anyway, we signed in at the security desk and then drove around the back to a small barn that housed the trout.  I was surprised by how small it was, even more so once I found out how many fish they have currently.

The black-board diagram showing the layout and number of fish

There are nine guys who take turns, one week each, taking care of the fish. During his week, each morning Allan feeds the fish in the three outside tanks (which house the larger ones), and then every other day he cleans out the pools. 

The water and the tanks are rather dirty, so I really couldn't see any of the fish, even after he threw in some food for them.  Ever obliging, he got out the net to catch one so I could get a close-up:

Inside the barn he changes out the filters for the water they use (it is gravity-fed into the shed from the lake behind it) since it originates up near Mt. Taranaki and the creek-bed isn't rock, but silt.  He also checks the inside troughs where they have the baby trout. Until they lose their little yolk sacs attached under their bellies, which they live off, they can't swim.   Once they start to swim around the guys transfer them into bigger troughs inside until they grow their top fin.  If I remember correctly they nick part of that top fin before putting them into the outside troughs, that way once they're released into the rivers or lakes you can tell they've been raised in captivity.

Allan was born and raised in Hawera, and although he lived in Australia for awhile in his 20's he's been here in Hawera ever since.  He volunteers on Wednesday mornings with the local Riding for the Disabled Club at the A&P Showgrounds, so he took me over to show me that as well.  A&P stands for Agricultural & Pastoral, so it's basically their Farmshow Grounds.  If it's nice next week I might take Sam for a walk over there on Wednesday morning to see everyone in action.  We went back to his house and his wife Ruth was home from her morning walk so we sat in their sun room enjoying a cup of coffee and chatting.  When asked if I come from a big family I mentioned that my Dad is one of nine kids and oddly enough, he and Ruth are both 1 of 9 as well (and they're both the 5th child in the family).  Ruth's daughter's partner is an American guy from Ohio, but she couldn't remember where in Ohio... Anyway, it was a nice way to spend a morning.