Hatching Fish

Last Thursday, we went to a fish hatchery. If you're like me, that means absolutely nothing. So let me explain...

Caledonia Fish Hatchery

The map above is the hatchery we went to (apparently the oldest one in the northern hemisphere). The point of a fish hatchery is to, well, hatch fish. Essentially, they raise fish from eggs to normal fish-size, and then release them somewhere, in the wild or otherwise. At the hatchery, they have the whole gamut of fish-sizes, from the size of your pinky to the size of your arm. So how do they raise them?

These bins feed the fish.

The little black boxes in the map above are pools of water, which is actually redirected from the stream right next to the facility. All the pools have fish in them that, interestingly, feed themselves. Staff fill up bins (see picture to the right) in the morning, with a specific amount of food, and the fish basically bump into a bar inside and knock food down (kinda like a cereal dispenser).

They only have a few workers at the hatchery, so the dispensers allow them to spend more time on other things and less time feeding fish.

It was pretty cold walking around, but it was still pretty interesting (I think that my feet almost froze off). I was personally amazed at how the fish were quite lively in the water, even though it was so cold; I'm not a Bio major, however, so this may be standard procedure.

Overall, it was a good time.

--Michael

I enjoyed this sign.