Friday, June 15th by Isabelle F.

On Friday, June 15th, we had our last day of Freshmen Tucker River Fellows week. We finished off the week on a high note after visiting the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute and trying out seine fishing! After meeting in the Tucker River Fellows room at GPS, the River Fellows, Mrs. Couch, Ms. White and Dr. Noel set off to TNACI. Our tour guide took us around TNACI, telling us about all the different species they have there and projects happening currently.

A couple of the highlights of visiting TNACI were being able to see baby sturgeon that had just arrived on Wednesday and learning about some of the endangered species they have there. One of the most interesting part of TNACI was the bioretention area, which supplies the building with water, and also filters the wastewater before it goes into the river. After finishing up our tour of TNACI, we all headed to the South Chickamauga Creek for seine fishing. Once we all put on our waders, we got a tutorial on seine fishing, then we got to try it ourselves! At first, we weren’t very good at catching the fish inside the net, but the more we practiced, the more we improved. We eventually caught all different types of darters, a couple of sunfish, and a type of catfish called a Mad Tom, which is state endangered in Georgia. Once we had moved a good distance downstream, we headed back upstream, towards the dam. At the dam, we hoped to catch some of the bigger species of fish that live in the area. Sadly, we didn’t catch any of the possible huge fish, but we still caught some very interesting types of fish.

During the last couple of tries to catch something larger, we were quite determined. So determined that while we were kicking the fish towards the net, all of us fell in the river, getting soaked! At that point, the entire group headed back to the riverbank to strip off our now soaking wet waders. After eating lunch, we got back onto the bus and headed back to GPS. Throughout the day we learned about TNACI, seine fishing and much more, our Tucker River Fellows week couldn’t have ended better!