Idaho students’ aquaculture program spawns achievements

MACKAY, Idaho — On a minimal budget in a tiny town in central Idaho, agri-science students have achieved major aquaculture milestones at Mackay Junior-Senior High School.

Converting a small, aged greenhouse into a fish lab in the 1990s, their pioneering projects have rippled outward to have significant lasting benefits for recreation and research.

Students established a destination golden trout fishery in a creek east of Mackay.

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Jesse Barger, front, and Lucas Hulse, eighth-graders at Mackay Junior-Senior High School, describe an aeration system in their aquaculture lab to Idaho Gov. Brad Little.

Students have been raising grayling, rainbow, and golden trout since October.

Agricultural, environmental, and tribal organizations helped finance the construction of a new aquaculture lab at Mackay Junior/Senior High School.

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