Ten young local students will have a say in the future of the catfish population at Spanish Lake.
The Epiphany Day School students in science and social studies teacher Olivia Morgan’s class start working on a nesting cavity project at 10 a.m. Friday and will continue each week at that time to help put together the plastic containers for catfish to spawn in.
They are involved in a three-year program undertaken by the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which stocked 12,000 hybrid stripers earlier this year and is in the process of stocking thousands of channel catfish this month in the lake shared by Iberia and St. Martin parishes. Jody David, LDWF District VI inland fisheries biologist manager, said 12,000 blue catfish, 6,000 flathead catfish and 30,000 white crappie are destined for Spanish Lake.
David, whose office is in Opelousas, and David Tate, Spanish Lake Commission chairman, visited the EDS students Friday afternoon to show them the nesting cavities and tell them about their role in the project. The students will get help from a few St. Martinville-based Explorer Post 550 members who attend Episcopal School of Acadiana in Cade.
The older volunteers are responsible for the part of the construction that requires power tools and such. The EDS students will have a hands-on contribution as they affix two halves together.
Tate, who lives near the lake’s shoreline, “With their little hands, they can put their hands inside and lace the zip ties and fasten the containers together.”
Michael LeBlanc; Jay Nugent; Luke Huffman; Rainy Bertrand; Hannah Cheeran; Cameron Kyle; Wilt Hoggatt; Emma Dugas; Camille Morvant, and Hunter Eastin should be busy throughout the fall and winter.
“Jody’s asked for 30 to 40, the first round for spring, and we’ll build them in the fall,” Tate said before the students arrived in Morgan’s classroom.
“We have 18 of these ready to bring down here (from ESA). The kids at school are working on them,” he said.
The nesting cavities are vital to catfish reproduction because of the lake’s soft, silty bottom, which isn’t conducive to successful spawning, David said.
The veteran inland fishereis biologist spoke to the students about the various species of catfish and about the plans at Spanish Lake. he was besieged by questions from the interested students.
He said they will accompany state biologists in boats when the nesting cavities are placed in strategic locations around the lake before the catfish spawn April to June.
Tate said the plastic containers were donated by Gambino’s Bakery in Lafayette.
Davis Curry, an Explorer Post 550 member, and Cole Breaux, both of New Iberia, also attended the talk. Curry and Breaux, along with Herbet Levitt of Avery Island, are working on the project at ESA.