Fishing for outdoor careers

A stock pond project at Shuttleworth College is giving Fisheries, and Countryside Management students a chance to link up with industry leaders.

Shuttleworth College has unveiled a project with leading leisure and conservation company, Embryo, to breed carp in ponds on the Old Warden park near Biggleswade, which will go on to stock waters across the UK.

People looking to work in fishing (the largest participation sport in the UK) or take up countryside orientated careers which include water management, will benefit from this new partnership.

The project will give students the opportunity to practice practical aspects of fishery management, whilst producing stocks that can be placed in Embryo’s partner lakes.

Five ponds have been created on site at Shuttleworth College, Biggleswade, which are all fed by the neighbouring stream.

Carp will be hatched on site in the College’s hatchery facility and then ‘grown on’ through the pond system for three years before moving to an Embryo lake.

Students participating on the fisheries program are able to harness the following technical skills:

• Fry rearing and Fish grading
• Collecting and analysing water quality readings using various modern methods
• Netting and surveys
• Nutritional requirements of a quality yield
• Biosecurity and water management
• Pond Liming
• Fish stocking

Protecting from natural predators

Action is necessary to protect fish which are maintained as part of our fisheries training programmes, which in turn prepare young people to work in this important area of conservation and sustainable food production world-wide.

Animal welfare is a key component of the philosophy of Shuttleworth College, and with that in mind bright orange lines have been placed across the ponds to deter predatory birds from eating all the stocks. This is opposed to netting in which birds can become entangled.