Braden Fastier/Stuff Appleby School students Ayvah Maisey, 9, left, Lani McArtney, 10, Anoushka Partridge, 10, and others clean up rubbish around the Waimea River, where the students have decided they want to become kaitiaki, guardians of the area. A group of Appleby school kids have taken responsibility for protecting a section of the Waimea River, after a school trip to survey fish in the area found none, raising concerns about the health of the waterway. Appleby School teacher Talia Ryan said the senior students visited the river with Fish & Game members back in May who were doing electric fishing, a harmless technique used to survey freshwater fish populations, except they didn’t see any fish.