Welcome to the first edition of Fish Bites! This e-newsletter is made specifically for students, parents and teachers. Expect to receive Fish Bites about four times each year and have your friends sign-up too!
Catfish have more than 27,000 taste buds. Humans have around 7,000.
"School" is the name given to a group of fish.
Fish are cold-blooded, so their temperature is equal to the water surrounding them.
Fish have gills that pull oxygen from the water around them as they would die without it.
Water Stewardship
There are you many ways YOU can help to keep our Earth in working order and our water clean – that’s what stewardship is! Each of us plays a role in protecting the environment and our natural resources so they will be there for us to use in the future – and for the fish as well! You can start by doing some very simple things:
1) Conserve Water. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth to conserve water resources. What are some of the other things you can do to conserve water? Calculate how much water you use by visiting this Water Conservation calculator from the U.S. Geological Survey.
2) Use an Everyday Drink Bottle. Ask your parents for a reusable drink bottle that you can fill with water or your favorite drink and carry with you wherever you go. Last year in the U.S. alone 38 billion water bottles went into our landfills! The energy we waste on making and disposing plastic water bottles would be enough to power 190,000 homes.
3) Pick Up Trash and Dispose of Properly. When you see trash at your favorite fishing spot, park or even on your own street – pick it up and put it in a garbage bag or can. When litter gets into our water, it can cause pollution and kill fish that might eat it.
Name that Fish!
Did you guess brook trout?
The brook trout was swimming in our state’s waters back way before European settlers arrived and it is Michigan’s state fish. Brook trout require cool, clear, spring-fed streams and pools. They can be found under cover of rocks, logs and undercut banks.
Brook trout have a long, streamlined body with a large mouth that extends past the eye. Color variations include olive, blue-gray or black above with a silvery white belly and wormlike markings along the back. They have red spots sometimes surrounded by bluish halos on their sides. The lower fins have a white front edge with black and the remainder is reddish orange. The tail fin is typically square or on rare occasions slightly forked. During breeding time in the fall male brook trout can become very bright orange-red along the sides.
