A volunteer spawns a female lake trout at the Iron River National Fish Hatchery.

Spawning fish and producing fish eggs are major parts of the Iron River National Fish Hatchery program each year.  Three types of lake trout and two types of coaster brook trout are kept on station for egg production.  Multiple ages of each species are held to ensure enough eggs are produced, and to allow maximum genetic variation. 

Fish spawning activities ran from October through mid-December, 2007.  A total of 3.48 million lake trout eggs from 728 females, and 2.4 million coaster brook trout eggs from 1,592 females, were collected. 

Female fish were spawned with an equal number of male fish to produce fertilized eggs.  After 45 days, the eggs were developed enough to mechanically sort out live eggs from dead eggs.  Live eggs were boxed and shipped to other facilities and partner agencies, or kept for rearing. 

A total of 1.4 million lake trout, and 333,480 coaster brook trout eggs were shipped.  Nearly 600,000 lake trout and 500,000 coaster brook trout were kept for rearing in 2008.

Although spawning activities run about eight weeks, raising adult fish and producing fish eggs is a multi-year process.  Lake trout mature at age five and coaster brook trout mature at age three.  The age of the female fish determines the number of eggs they produce.  When fully mature, each female lake trout produces about 6,000 eggs, and each female coaster brook trout produces about 2,750 eggs.  As indicated by the numbers of eggs produced, a large number of adult fish have to be maintained to ensure enough eggs are available every year to meet yearly requests. 

Iron River NFH could not have completed fish spawning and egg production activities without the help of numerous volunteers and other government offices.  Their help was greatly appreciated.  We look forward to fish spawning and producing eggs again in the fall of 2008.