On Saturday, March 7th, Mr. Matt Christian’s Berlin High School Marine Biology class traveled to the Annual Frag Farmers’ Market, hosted by EO Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut. The annual market hosts over 100 vendors, making it the largest single-day coral swap in the country.

While at the market, the marine biology students visited marine livestock vendors from all over the country, traded the corals they had been growing this school year in the BHS Aquatics Lab for new species, met marine science students from other high school and university programs, and attended lectures on phytoplankton culture and fish disease identification and treatment. In total, five new species of coral were added to the BHS systems, as well as a new starfish from the Caribbean and an orchid dottyback fish raised at Roger Williams University.

Students also had a chance to explore on their own and bring a few new species back to their home aquariums. Mountaineers Lillian Mumford, Madison Rontey, Charlie Young, George Lamphere-Webster, and Andrew Crimmel attended the event with Mr. Christian, Ms. Karen Day, and Ms. Rebekah Lamphere.

Mountaineers in the Berlin Aquatics program have also been busy in the lab raising Moon Jellyfish to present and donate to the VIA Aquarium on May 5th.

Students in the BHS Trout in the Classroom project are also raising Brown Trout to be released into the Little Hoosic River later this spring in collaboration with the Homewaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Stay tune for more Aquatics news this spring!

Photos: Mr. Christian, Ms. Day and Ms. Lamphere (photos of some of George’s new residents in his home aquarium).