Swedish Anglers Association took high school students to freshwater pearl mussel stream
During the fall of 2024, Swedish Anglers Association (SAA) organised two lessons for the Natural Resource High School in 脰jebyn, Norrbotten, with the aim of creating an understanding of our waters and those who live in them. The idea of the practice was to inform these students about the LIFE Revives project and invite them to join and participate outside in a nearby stream with an abundant freshwater pearl mussel (FPM) population.聽We wanted to reach the future machine operators as well as nature-interested students to create a consensus on a red-listed species and what we should do to consider our streams. The main goal was to create knowledge so that machine operators in the future would be more careful around bodies of water and how to cross them.
Day 1
The first activity was an indoor lesson regarding fisheries care and communication. The importance of basic knowledge about what and we work with and how we do to make it better for our water environments with relatively simple means. We informed about the project and what challenges there are for the mussels in our freshwater systems in Norrbotten county. We showed good examples from restored sections of former fleet lines, removal of migrate obstacles, etcetera. This is to create a consensus on what may be required to save the river pearl mussel.
Day 2
During the day in the field, simpler training in biotope mapping was carried out, where the students had to decide how the stream is affected or not affected by us humans. This was to create an understanding of materials and living environments for, for example, the trout in these FPM streams. We had a workshop where the students had to discuss what should be done in the event of a possible transition of a machine through the stream.聽We talked about the mussel's host fish (trout), and how we can get more trout and if there is material that benefits both the trout and the mussel in the stream. When examining the stream, the students also had to measure water speed, look at water quality and average width/average depth. Here they also had to specify what the bottom substrate looked like and which material dominated in the stream.
Summary of the two days
Through these two meetings, we created a good bond with both pedagogues at the school and the students who attended the lessons. We were welcomed back to school for more activity days next year. A successful day together with 脰jebyns Natural Resource High School!
Author: Tobias Hellman, LIFE Revives project coordinator in SAA