VIENNA — Mathews High School honors biology students are conducting research on fish at the Vienna Fish and Game Club pond to determine the aquatic life’s survival rate.

Science teachers Doug Berkhouse and Jared Terlecky brought 30 seniors to the organization’s Youngstown Kingsville Road NE property this week.

The pond is stocked with bass, crappie, catfish and bluegill.

Terlecky and Berkhouse teach the class, which Terlecky said includes off-site research.

“This is a research project the students do as a class,” he said. “The students are doing a population study. We have the students do a mark-and-recapture lab.

“This is a way to count wildlife. The students are trying to count how many fish are in this pond.”

Students capture different fish from the pond and tag them. The fish and their numbers are recorded on a spreadsheet.

He said the students will return in the spring, see what fish they can recapture and record that data, which helps determine the number of fish.

This is the third year the class has been using the Vienna Fish and Game pond, with the program in its eighth year.

Terlecky said that in previous years, the students went to the Mathews board administration office property, where there was a land lab and pond, but the property has since been sold.

Terlecky said each year the total number of fish at the previous location remained around the same.

“This being year three at a new pond, it will be interesting to see if we get the same level of consistency. This activity exposes the students to what a scientific study looks like. We have three years of data from this pond,” Terlecky said.

He said the students get practice with recording data and measuring fish.

Terlecky said with the fish measuring, they can recapture the tagged fish and record how much each has grown. They create lab reports on what changes occurred.

He said bluegill live seven to eight years and bass 10 to 12 years.

“We like to do a lot of hands-on learning activities. We do tree identification and a unit on paleontology and go to museums,” Terlecky said.

Kylie Garrett said she caught her first fish ever at the event.

“This was the first time I have ever tried a fishing pole. I needed some help putting the worm on the hook. I caught one fish, which was eight inches long,” she said.

First-time angler Tara Arkwright said she caught several bluegill.

“We get to learn new skills, but it is a lot of fun,” she said.

Jayden Nichols said it is interesting to leave school and come to a new place to learn how to catch fish and measure them. She said that after she graduates, she plans to go into the medical field.