The school's Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology program aims to teach students how to conserve and manage aquatic life in both laboratory and field settings. Vaugeois said around 60 full-time students work with trained technicians to care for nearly 2,000 fish every year.

Jessica Hopkins, a former fisheries student at VIU, said in a message that the trout farm is "run by students." She noted the water in the trout tanks is first filtered by the school's hydroponic farm and is then fed from the trout farm into a shellfish farm.

1,500 trout relocated

Due to a longstanding mutual aid agreement between the school and the federal Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, school staff spent two days transporting the remaining 1,500 trout from the facility to the station, where they'll be held for up to six months.

Vaugeois said the coordinated move was "our chance to rectify deficiencies in the facilities and training that were identified as a result of this incident."