Grade school students across the country will get the chance to learn about aquarium fish and fish-keeping as part of a new program created and supported by the Pet Care Trust (Washington).
The Fish in the Classroom program also will help promote growth in the aquarium industry, according to Lew Sutton, president of The Pet Care Trust.
“Over the next three years, we will look forward to working with five nationally recognized aquariums and grade schools and retailers across the country to create Fish in the Classroom programs that will include a Retail Mentoring Program that will operate on an ongoing basis by the retailers in the communities where the aquariums are located,” Sutton said.
“We will use the remainder of 2007 to learn from and help expand the existing Florida Aquarium’s Aquariumania Outreach Program,” he continued. “Our plan is to help the Florida Aquarium extend their outreach program to 100 teachers by the end of 2007.”
The foundation also plans to develop a separate program for retailers to help them establish and support their own grassroots-based Fish in the Classroom programs.
Senior executives from leading aquarium products companies met in Chicago in July to create an Aquatic Advisory Council to provide ongoing strategic counsel for the program.