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Show Supplement To: Gunnison Valley News - The Salina Sun Garfield County News - The Richfield Reaper VOLUME 3 NUMBER 36 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER Half-Millio- Eyes Barometer for Fish Growth Move n Five hundred thousand staring eyes in one large jar let brood hatchery operators at Bicknell know when their latest fish offspring are ready for their next move. HATCH The fish raised at the Mammoth Creek Hatchery in Hatch all had their beginning at the J. Perry Egan brood station located in Bicknell where brood fish first spawned about the first of February. 8, 1982 The eggs were fertilized with male sperm, washed and allowed to harThen they were placed in den. large plastic jars eyeing jars about 14 inches in diameter and two each of which holds up to feet high 250,000 eggs. A continual flow of fresh water goes through the jar while operators wait for the tiny eggs to show their eyes in about 30 days. The eggs are next put through a process hatchery people call bumpo em in which eggs are poured from the jar into pans which causes the infertile eggs to turn white. After 24 hours, all the eggs are run through the egg picker, an electronic device which sorts the infertile eggs from the fertile eggs at the rate of 100,000 an hour. The egg picker uses a light which cannot pass through the opaque infertile eggs and seldom makes a mistake. The eggs are then ready for shipment catchables in April. It takes from 12 to to hatcheries throughout Utah like 18 months to raise them to catchable about nine inches. Fingerlings Mammoth. They are placed in 10 gallon size coolers in water or shipped in a box take three to four months. with trays where the eggs are covered At Mammoth Creek, the tiny eggs with moist cloths. The top tray is their staring eyes are kept in an with covered with ice which melts down to for about two or three weeks incubator be keep the lower trays cool. They can hatch. After they reach where they kept this way for 24 hours or longer. what hatchery operators call the 0 swim-u- p fish The recently renovated Mammoth stage (about into the are next for received placed they pound) per years eggs Hatchery troughs in the hatchery. About two months after the eggs are recieved, the tiny fish are ready to be put outside for raising to fingerling or catchable size. 800-100- The new raceways are steel with an epoxy coating which is equally smooth over ard easY t0 clean. Cement has rough spots conducive to the growth of algae. The new raceways are expected jgg 30 to 40 years, The water for the hatchery comes from springs and is pure at a temperature that varies not more than two degrees between 54 and 56 degrees. Mammoth Creek Hatchery produces pounds of fish per year, limited by the flow from the spring (3.5 cubic feet per second). The flow determines production and Mammoth Creek is one nine inches long, of the smallest in production of the 10 Catchables, about to the about three pound. Ad- state hatcheries in Utah. The larger weigh vanced fingerlings are about five in- hatcheries such as Midway in the ches and weigh about 20 to the pound. northern part of the state produce three inch fish weigh 200.000 pounds of fish each year. Fingerlings 90 to the pound. Some cutthroats are Production also depends on water ready for planting as fry when they and the water quality at quality weigh only 1000 to the pound. clarifers and settling Mammoth, Catchables are usually planted in ponds are used to treat the water used streams and in some lakes. Frys and at the hatchery before it is turned into fingerlings usually go to the lakes and Mammoth Creek. reservoirs. There are eight 4 by 75 foot raceways used for fingerlings, and one set of four of the size dictate limitations Space fish raised for planting. Recently the raceways used for larger fish. feet Beaver Hatchery was closed because of Raceways are two and one-hadebilitation and just await funds for deep and are filled with 18 inches of water. Because of the loss of oxygen, renovation. the water must be areated between the Other hatcheries are in poor shape, smaller raceway in the first set of according to Arnold Banger, fisheries larger raceways and between the first program coordinator, fish culture of and second sets of large raceways. the Division of Wildlife Resources, are Closed hatcheries place an additional White Rock, Kamas, and Fountain burden on remaining hatcheries to do Green, all intermediate size hatcheries. the same job and production had to be The DWR has also experienced some cut about 15 percent in 1979. Bangerter problems with the Glenwood Hatchery hopes to see at least the restoration of at Richfield with its recycling system that 15 percent in catchable production and is currently conducting a pilot and would prefer to see an increase. study. But currently hatcheries are all overloaded and he isnt very optimistic Mammoth Green Hatchery was built about additional funds being forthin the early 1930s and had been almost coming. continually undergoing repairs. The decision to renovate and install new There are from two to seven people raceways came more than two years employed at each hatchery and they raise die fish and do the planting. Fish ago and renovation has recently been to be planted are transported in trucks completed at a cost of just under $1 million. containing from one to four units with four unit trucks capable of carrying The hatchery was closed during 10,000 nine inch catchables, 60,000 five remodeling and its name was changed inch fingerlings, or 180,000 three inch from Panguitch Hatchery to Mammoth fingerlings. They start planting on Creek Hatchery for the creek on which April 15 an finsh up about November 1. it is located. 50.000 lf Formerly the Panguitch Fish Hatchery, the newly renovated Mammoth 89 boasts entirely new con- - Creek Fish Hatchery just south of Hatch on U.S. Jim Overby, head engineer of tne nearly dollar renovation project at the fish hatchery explains one-milli- cept for producing 50,000 pounds Utah. of fish per year. Hatchery is one of largest innovative equipment to members of State Building Board in attendance for inspection. in Mammoth Creek now has a new concept in raceways. In past years cement raceways were used which were highly vulnerable to extreme cold temperatures and within two to three years begin to deteriorate. The previous cement raceweys at Mammoth Creek had been rebuilt several times in past years. Superintendent of Mammoth Creek Fish Hatchery, Gale Wilcock is happy to explain the process of raising fish to Recently 60,000 five inch fingerling brook trout were shipped from the Loa Hatchery to Strawberry Reservoir for planting at night. Seagulls prevalent in the area would snatch up the tiny fish if they were planted in the daytime said Bangert.er. Water temperatures at the planting (Continued on Page 6 catchable size for planting happens by. in Utah waters to anyone who |