Marine biology education requires prolonged observation of various organisms such as fishes and seaweeds. However, there are significant time and spatial constraints on field trips to the sea. Nevertheless, facilities for rearing marine organisms on land to simulate the marine environment are not easily available, and confirming whether the organisms exhibit behaviors similar to those in the open sea is also challenging. Steelhead, as Pacific salmonids, are losing their habitat due to climate change. Therefore, education on them is not only important for marine fish ecology but also in demonstrating the relevance of climate change to marine systems, making it educationally significant. This study aims to confirm whether juvenile steelhead in small aquaculture exhibit group schooling similar to their wild counterparts and to develop methodologies for applying this to education. The study records temporal and spatial information of juvenile steelhead in an environment mimicking the wild and analyzes cross-correlation between the movements of each juvenile in the video footage to establish features for discerning schooling behavior among juveniles. Through this, it was confirmed that as juveniles grow, schooling occurs actively in small aquaculture settings similar to the wild. This demonstrates the significance of using simple video recording and statistical analysis of fish movement in small aquaculture as a platform that can substitute for field trips in fish ecology education.

Authors:
Byung Man Lee, HAbio Inc., South Korea
Claire Shin, St. Bernard's Academy, United States
Dan Scofield, St. Bernard's Academy, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Lee is currently the CEO of a bio-related venture for developing bio-products and education programs.

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