Thanks to the continued support from Battelle, the NSRWA was able to engage South Shore students in our river herring educational program called FISH School. FISH School is part of our Youth Climate Action Toolkit (Youth CAT) teacher resources. FISH School stands for Fostering Innovative Science through Herring counts at Schools. Through this program, the NSRWA ran 16 hands-on discovery programs in 9 different towns, engaging 1,995 students in meaningful science and ecology activities. Most of these programs included field trips to local herring runs, allowing the students to become citizen scientists and count herring in person. Through these river herring activities, the students of the South Shore gained an appreciation for these keystone species and built an understanding of how important they are to our local ecosystems and communities. In the 2025 spring season, the NSRWA made 5 new school partnerships in 4 towns, totalling to 583 additional students!
With the support of Battlelle, the NSRWA was also able to unveil the Climate Action Youth Advisory Council, or CAYAC for short. Through this new program, the NSRWA received applications, hosted a first meeting and ran a vernal pool discovery workshop where local high school students helped find and identify macroinvertebrates in ephemeral wetlands. This helped them understand how runoff and pollution can affect the water quality within these unique ecosystems. Social media from this event, as well as other youth-led postings have generated over 2,000 views on NSRWA social media platforms. Thank you to Battelle for providing the funding for these programs!
