In mid January, over 240,000 hatching landlocked salmon were transferred from incubators to troughs supplied with heated well water. These fish will be stocked in 2005 and by the end of the month they began to feed. Landlocked Atlantic salmon are reared at Pittsford for use in a restoration program at Lake Champlain. Three separate strains of salmon are produced for an ongoing strain evaluation. In conjunction with the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Office, 45,000 salmon from the three strains are monitored on New York's Boquet River.

After reaching the eyed stage, half of Pittsford's 580,000 incubating Atlantic salmon eggs were shocked and picked. The second half of the eggs will be picked in February when they become more developed. The resulting Atlantic salmon fry will be stocked into the Connecticut River system during mid May. Pittsford annually stocks 350,000-500,000 fry for the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program.

The hatchery staff cared for the 250,000 salmon smolts that will be released this spring into Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River. Pittsford also supplied eyed salmon eggs to four local schools for the Adopt a Salmon program and assisted White River National Fish Hatchery staff in picking eggs.