Matua Ray's Visit

 Matua Ray’s Visit

On Monday morning Matua Ray came to visit our class to talk about how to keep our fresh waterways healthy.

 

First Matua Ray told us something called clarity. Clarity means if the water is clear or not. Matua Ray showed us a long pipe with a black magnet inside of the pole. We had to move the black magnet up and down inside the pipe. We were checking to see if the water was clear. There were also numbers on the pole. We had to look inside of a circle at the bottom of the long pipe and move the black magnet up and when you couldn’t see the black magnet the magnet would stop at a number. The numbers end at 100. 

Next Matua Ray showed us a fun little experiment. He had some salt water in a little container. Matua Ray brought out something similar to a thermometer. We put the thermometer in the container of salt water and tested how cold the water was. The temperature was 15 degrees. 

After that Matua Ray told us the best ph level for the right amount of alkaline and acid in the water. The best ph level is 7. If the number is over 9 that means there is too much alkaline. If it is under 5 that means there is too much acid. That is why the best number level is 7.

Later on Matua Ray told us about some pests that are not good for our rivers. There were two types. One is called the Mosquito Fish. The Mosquito Fish pulls out other fish's  eyes. The other fish is called the 

Koi Carp. The Koi Carp makes the water dirty and kills the other living fish in the water.

Finally Matua Ray ended his presentation. The class said thank you to Matua Ray for teaching our class some really cool stuff about Whitebait Connection. I thought my class and I had a wonderful time with Matua Ray. I had an amazing morning.