Middle School Adventure: The Goldfish Relocation Program

The Swampscott Middle School students glimpsed orange fish wriggling below the pond's dark surface and announced an idea.

The idea was something like this: let's drive the goldfish toward shore and fish them out with long-handled nets and rope-strung buckets.

Wednesday, last week, the six Environmental Club kids' ideas resulted in splashes but no fish.

But through trial and error they are determined to capture the goldfish.

Middle school teacher Elizabeth Rogers regularly uses the pond to teach science lessons.

Her 6th and 7th graders recently discovered that someone had released large goldfish — like those from a backyard koi pond — into the pond.

"Since this can negatively impact the delicate pond ecosystem, the kids wanted to remove the fish," the teacher said.

They set up a large tank inside the school and hope to take the fish out of the pond and transport them to the tank, their new home, the teacher said.

A week ago Wednesday the boys and girls side-stepped poison ivy, ducked under branches and followed a path to the pond's edge.

Birds sang, leaves rustled and a duck called loudly.

They worked their ideas for 20 to 30 minutes trying to catch the estimated six or seven fish.

If nothing else, besides enjoying nature and each others company, the kids are drawing attention to the practice of releasing non-native species, a damaging act that occurs frequently, their teacher said.

"There is another pond on the school grounds that also has these fish in it," she said. "Unfortunately, the pond is not as accessible, so those fish have remained for several years and have negatively impacted the species that originally lived in the pond without fish as predators."

At the accessible pond's shore one student tried throwing a bucket into the water to catch the fish, throwing it sort of like a life preserver, only the life they are trying to save is the pond's.

At the end of the day they learned that they needed a new idea.

Maybe larger nets.