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Phone: 231-584-2461 E-mail: JordanRiver@fws.gov |
Current Events
(as of December 16, 2006)
Hatchery Work (click on links for pictures)
We have approximately two million lake trout in our outside raceways. We are feeding the fish once daily, at daybreak. We use a specialized feed truck to do this. It is a standard pickup truck which has had its bed replaced with a hydraulically driven blower system. The feed is a commercially prepared diet formulated for Lake trout culture. Its main ingredient is fish meal, which is made from fish that don't have much market value for human consumption, but are a good source of protein and lipids for aquaculture.
We also clean the raceways daily. To do this, we use a brush to push solid waste to the downstream end of a raceway. Then we remove a standpipe to divert the waste-laden water to our off-line settling basin system. This serves to slow down the flow of water, allowing solid waste particles a chance to settle out before the water passes through to the Jordan River.
They will remain in the outside raceways through the winter, with the exception of a short period during which they will brought back inside for fish marking.
These fish are scheduled for release in the spring of 2007.
We began receiving eyed eggs from the next year class in mid-November, and our final shipment for the season is scheduled for early January. We will incubate approximately 5.5 million eggs this year. Hatching occurs about three to four weeks after we receive the eggs. At that point, the sacfry are transferred from the hatching jars to the bottom of the tanks. They remain on the bottom of the tanks for a final three to four week stretch, until they reached the swim up, or first feeding, stage. All surviving fry are then started on feed. About 60-70% typically survive to the first feeding stage.
Approximately a million of these fish will be transferred to the Pendills Creek National Fish Hatchery in the spring of 2007 as 2.5 inch fingerlings, where they will be raised over the course of the next year.
