I am sad that it is the end of term as we don't get to do the powan blog. But next year we hope to have the powan again and the blog. That makes me happy.
By Savannah

I wonder where the fish are in the loch and how big they are.
By Evelyn

I loved looking after the powan and I loved saving them from extinction. But now it is the holidays and we will have a nice break.
By Logan

I hope we will be working with the powan next year.
By Athena

I have really enjoyed working with the powan this year and am excited about the summer holidays.
By Olivia

This is my last week at Luss Primary School and I will miss everyone and our work on the powan.
By Mollie

We sang our "Song of the Powan" at our church service on Tuesday. P7 got to ring the bell as a leaving tradition!

We loved our visit from Ms. Bryce and Mr. Adams from the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust. We are invited in the autumn to the Scottish Centre for Ecology and Natural Environment to take part in sampling and counting the various species of fish in Loch Lomond. This centre is run by Glasgow University.

P5-7 pupils.

Ms. Bryce was very enthusiastic about her talk and the fish she described.
She said that the Brook Eel has a disk in it's mouth to bite the person or fish
and to soak up the blood.
By Savannah.

The talk by Ms. Bryce was fantastic. We thanked them very much for coming to our school and giving us a lot of information about Loch Lomond, the other fish and our other local habitats.
By Savannah

Yesterday I was pleased with how much I managed to remember about the powan from the last few years. I remembered a lot of facts and answered a lot of questions.
Mollie

Oops reservoir!

Yesterday Ms. Bryce told us that powan fish have also been introduced to Loch Sloy and the Carron Resevoir.
By Athena

We are excited because today we have a visit from Ms. Bryce from the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust

We will post our words as soon as we have finished writing them. We will sing them to the tune of "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

Today we are linking our blog to music. We are writing words for our "Powan Song" to sing at our end of term service.

Today we used the pie charts on the blog to revise fractions, decimals and percentages.

We also linked our blog to music today and created a Powan Rap. We used some percussion instruments to help with this. We all loved doing it!

Today we have been linking our blog to literacy and art. We designed and created cartoons called "Lussie Goes Home." We worked individually and our cartoons tell the story of the egg, the hatching, the release into Loch Lomond and the adventures in the loch.

Today we used the blog to help us with our maths. We made bar graphs and pie charts from the numbers of pages that have been viewed and the countries around the world who have looked at our blog. We loved doing this.

The fish have gone, but our blog has not gone! We will continue to write news and stories.
Children of Luss Primary School.

The day we released the powan I couldn't go, but my two nieces went instead. I wish I could have gone and I miss the powan.
By Athena

I was sorry I couldn't make it to release day. My brother and I were busy with Mum and Dad.
By Kinvara

I think it feels different in the class without the fish and I am missing them!
By Logan

Toby and I went down to see the fish being released at the shore. Mum was able to come too.
By Evelyn

I was sorry to miss seeing the fish go. I would have loved to see them start their little adventures. I hope they meet some nice friends!
By Olivia

We let the fish go beside the lifeboat shed at the beach. The Fisheries Trust told us this was a good place.
By Isla

Since the powan have gone, I have been wondering what they could have been up to. I was worried during the sunny weather and hoped they had gone to the deeper, colder water.
By Mollie

I hate to see the fish go, but they'll have a better life out in the loch rather than being stranded in a very small tank.
By Savannah  

All the eggs hatched during the holidays and the fish were released into the loch. We said good luck to all of them!

Thank you to all pupils and parents who came down to the shore this morning. We hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and the blog will be back after the holidays.

Thanks again to the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust for their great work with the eggs.

 

 

HAPPY EASTER!

 

Then they were gone!

Then very gently we let the loch water fill the beaker and said goodbye to them!

 

We left the fish in the beaker  until the water in it was at the same temperature as the loch. The loch was eight degrees in the shallows.

Here are some photographs of the fish this morning. We had to transfer them from the tank to a beaker for release.

The fish are free! We released the small powan into Loch Lomond this morning. Good luck to every one of them!

The fish start their big adventure tomorrow, when they "go home" to Loch Lomond. They will be released back into the wild and that is a great feeling!

The fish have their yolk sac to feed on until they are released. We hope that lots more will hatch tonight!
More details to follow tomorrow.

More eggs will hatch tonight and tomorrow and we are releasing all the fish on Thursday at 10am.

We have thirty little fish today!

We have twelve little fish today!

We are hoping more eggs will hatch soon, so release date may be Wednesday or Thursday. This will be confirmed by email.

We are planning to release the fish tomorrow! Our headteacher will email all the families in school with a time to meet. Please check your email!

Great news! Yesterday seven fish hatched and were swimming around when they were checked at lunch-time! We added some loch water to make sure that they had enough nutrients. This also helps to prepare them for the temperature of the loch. The pictures are a little blurred as they are darting around the tank. 

The powan are all still eggs today and they are taking their time to hatch!
By Kinvara.

In Waitrose, when you buy some shopping, you get a green token. There are 3 charity boxes and the powan are one of them. Thank you Waitrose!
By Athena.

We have noticed a change in the eggs. They have a dark line through them now. This is their tail developing.
By Olivia.

Yesterday Logan and I were looking after the fish. We were starting to worry because none of the eggs had hatched. Olivia suddenly noticed that one of them had a tail popping out. It was swimming about with the egg still on his head. We had never seen this happen before.
By Mollie.

It is very difficult to tell the difference between a male and female powan. Even fish experts can struggle with this, but there is a way. You have to wait until the powan is fully grown. The female powan has a little white lump beside her bottom.
By Isla.

If the eggs don't hatch today, the teachers will have to come in over the Easter holidays.
By Evelyn and Olivia.

Yesterday, we were really happy when an egg hatched, but really sad today because the little fish died during the night.
By Olivia and Savannah

One of the eggs hatched today and we are so excited! We are hoping that a lot more will hatch overnight.

We are hoping that the eggs will hatch this week, before the Easter holidays begin. Don't forget to check the blog for the latest news!!

Children of Luss Primary School.

We have been learning about habitats in science. We learnt about habitats in other countries and are now looking at habitats in our local area. Loch Lomond is a special habitat for the powan.

Welcome to the Luss powan blog if you are a new reader! We are the children from Luss Primary School in Argyll and Bute and our school is on the banks of Loch Lomond.

 

We will continue to bring you details of our special powan eggs, as we near the date of hatching!

 

 



The eggs are looking good today and Luss has some sunshine.

We wanted to show you our beautiful powan again.

Another lovely day on the loch!

Yesterday the rangers had brought things that meant we could see things the way a fish would. It was amazing! What we did was put some water in and some insects and looked at them. There was a big one which we put in the loch. I didn't have any wellies so I couldn't see into it properly but I bet it was awesome.
By Mollie

Yesterday I found out that when we release the powan, it is better if they are put into deep water. There is more for them to eat in the deeper water. I enjoyed going pond dipping with the rangers.
By Kinvara

We went with the park rangers to check how many bugs are underwater. The powan love to eat the bugs in the loch . If there are a lot of bugs in the river, this means that the river is very clean. The bugs flow down the river to the loch. This is called kick sampling.
By Isla

Yesterday, when the rangers came we went kick sampling in the river. This disturbs the insects so we can count them. Isla and I found a blood  worm and a mayfly. The mayfly was trying to eat the worm. Then we put the mayfly into a tub to look at it more closely. We always put the insects back  carefully into the river.
By Savannah

In writing, we are writing about the blog and the powan.   Today we are allowed to type our own sentences.
ByAthena

Yesterday Olivia and I went pond dipping in the river to check for insects and food for the powan. We caught a flat mayfly. The river flows into Loch Lomond.
By Evelyn

Yesterday Kinvara and I looked after the powan eggs and we found no dead eggs.
By Olivia

Yesterday Mollie and Evelyn looked after the eggs. We have a rota in the classroom to change the ice and check the eggs. The infant class had a chance to view the eggs with the magnifying glass. Mollie and Evelyn showed them, one at a time.

 

 

This is us at the loch today, checking the temperature of the water.

 

Ben Lomond had a lot of snow today.

The loch will get colder again from the snowmelt. 



We check the eggs using a magnifying glass.



The park rangers are coming to visit us on Wednesday. We are going back to the loch to check the temperature.
By Athena

I enjoyed going down to the loch this morning and we had a lovely walk. The sun is shining today and the loch looks beautiful.
By Logan

This morning we walked down to the loch and took the temperature. It was 7 degrees. The ducks and swans came over to speak to us!
By Savannah

Mrs. Willoughby came in on Sunday to put fresh ice into the tank. Miss Struthers changed the bottles of ice on Saturday.
By Kinvara

Over the weekend, the classroom was warm and the temperature in the tank went to 12 degrees. We need to be careful, or the eggs will hatch too early.
By Evelyn

Savannah and I are looking after the fish today. Sadly, when we looked into the tank this morning quite a few eggs have turned white and died. We still have plenty of eggs, but we are sad that they have died.
By Isla

Today the powan tank is 4.7 degrees. The loch is 7 degrees, but that is at the edge in the sun.
By Olivia

Some eggs died over the weekend. We had to take them out of the tank, as they can infect the other ones. They give off toxins when they die.
By Mollie

 

This is the eggs today and they are getting bigger!

 

The diver has to go down to the bottom of the loch where the adult powan live. It is very dark and they have to take a torch.
By Savannah

It is hard for the diver to catch the female powan to harvest the eggs. It costs a lot of money to pay the diver.
By Kinvara

When the powan eggs hatch, they look so cute with their small eyes and white bodies.
By Olivia

The powan, a freshwater herring is found in two lochs in Scotland. It is believed to be a descendent of the herring family, having been stranded during the Glacial period when Loch Lomond was first cut off from the sea. Like herring, the powan has to be netted. The most common fish in the loch is pike.
By Logan

We have some rules for the powan tank in the classroom.

1. Never put your hands into the tank.
2. Don't do anything at the tank without getting permission.
3. Make sure the water is around 4 degrees, or they will hatch too early.
4. Make sure the lid is closed at all times.
5. Be careful not to let any eggs go beside the frozen water bottles.
6. Move the eggs carefully using a pipette, if this happens.

By Athena

The divers go and catch the female fish. Then the Fisheries Trust squeeze the female's belly and then the eggs come out. They are very lively little fish when they hatch.
By Savannah

We need to let the temperature of the water heat up. As the eggs are going to hatch soon, the water needs to be between 4 and 6 degrees.
By Evelyn

I expect the powan to hatch at the end of March or the start of April. We will be very sad the day we let them go, but it is for the best.
By Isla

We want the temperature of the water in the tank to go up a little. It can,t be too warm or the eggs will hatch too early. It is hard to let them go, as we love looking after them. We need to check the insect numbers in the loch, so that they have a good source of food.
By Mollie

 

We keep the eggs in one half of the tank. We put frozen water bottles in the other half, to keep the water at the correct temperature.

 

 



 

This is what our powan eggs look like today.

 

 

Our headteacher took the eggs home at half term to look after them. After half term, we moved the eggs to a tank.

Kinvara and Savannah went down to the loch to get fresh water for the tank. Then we put the eggs in the tank.
By Savannah

The Eco Committee wrote a letter to Virginia McKenna, the Environment Minister and the Total Green Award Group, to see if they would pay for divers to harvest the eggs next year.
By Athena

We made up a rota to check the temperature. The teachers check it at the weekend and the older class do it during the week.
By Savannah.

We check the temperature every day. 2 to 3 degrees is perfect.
By Olivia

The eggs arrived in a bag with loch water and went straight to the staff room. We need to keep them between 1 and 4 degrees centigrade. They were in a cool box with ice.
By Isla

The eggs arrived in school on the 23rd January.

Powan post for today.

 

 

We are lucky to have been given 100 powan eggs to look after in our school. These were given to us by the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust.



 

Other interesting facts we have learnt about the powan.

 

 

The powan is a freshwater whitefish. The powan is a protected species and must not be caught by anglers. It is a distinctive silvery fish with a dark bluish or green back. It has large fins, can grow up to 46cm and can weigh as much as 900grams. Powan can be found all over Loch Lomond. They lay their eggs (spawn) in early January. 60 to 70 days later the eggs hatch into small fish (fry) only 12mm long. They can live up to 10 years in the right conditions.

 

 

 



 

This is an adult powan. Our little eggs turn into this beautiful fish!

Today we are going to start by sharing a few facts about the powan fish.

The powan live in Loch Lomond and also Loch Eck. The powan is an Ice Age fish.
By Athena.

The powan live at the bottom of the loch and like it dark, cold and well-oxygenated. The females go to the shallows to lay their eggs.
By Logan.

The powan eggs are very delicate and very special.
By Kinvara.

Powan are an endangered species of fish and we must protect them from the ruffe.
By Savannah.

The ruffe are a species of fish introduced to the loch by fishermen as bait. They eat the powan eggs but not the powan fish.
By Olivia.

The fish eggs develop eyes that appear as black dots.
By Evelyn.

When a powan egg dies, it changes from transparent to white in colour.
By Isla.

Powan eggs take a while to hatch. We need to keep them cold until they hatch and release them into the loch before the yolk sac runs out.
By Mollie.

 

This is how the loch looked today!

 

 

We have been learning about habitats in our topic work. Loch Lomond is our local freshwater habitat, where the powan fish live. Loch Lomond and our school are situated in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

We are the children of  Luss Primary School in Argyll and Bute. We are lucky to have our school on the banks of Loch Lomond. The loch forms part of our "outdoor classroom." All of our blog posts are written by us. Happy reading!

We are excited to share our new blog with our readers. We will bring you news, views and facts about the Powan fish and their life in Loch Lomond. So please keep reading!!

Welcome to the Luss Powan Blog, created and managed by Luss Primary School.