Photo: Emma Friedman/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Children and state officials helped stock Boston’s Jamaica Pond with over 1,000 trout on Monday.
MassWildlife is stocking bodies of water across the Commonwealth with roughly 455,000 trout this spring. The process started back on March 4 and includes stocking Eastern Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Tiger Trout.
On Monday, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and MassWildlife stocked Jamaica Pond with help from over 100 students from the Curley K-8 School and the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. DFG Commissioner Tom O’Shea said he always loves the annual tradition.
“It's a really exciting [and] fun event, where people get to actually put the fish in the water,” said O'Shea.
The event helps teach Boston Public School students about the importance of the state’s aquatic systems, especially as it relates to trout.
“This is where you plant a seed with an experience that a kid will never forget and that’s what grows, we think, a person who’s going to someday go into fishing or something that gets people outside and loving nature. They’ll never forget this experience,” said O’Shea.
The students helped carry buckets of trout to the pond while trying to avoid getting splashed.
“And they’ve been hitting me with their tails too,” said a sixth-grader stocking the pond.
Besides exceptions for children and senior citizens, a freshwater fishing license is required in Massachusetts to fish for trout.
WBZ NewsRadio's Emma Friedman (@EmmaFriedmanWBZ) reports.
Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App | TikTok