New hatcheries are impressive

In Fairbanks this past week for the AYK (Arctic, Yukon and Kuskokwim) area meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, board members were given a tour of the new Sport Fish Division hatchery under construction. This is one of the two new hatcheries — the other one is also under construction in Anchorage — for which you have been paying a $9 fee tacked onto your sport fishing license the last several years.

This new Fairbanks facility, the Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery, was designed to serve the needs of the Interior for the next 25 years, with the capability of doubling the historic Fairbanks area stocking levels. At a projected cost of $46 million, it is an impressive structure. State-of-the-art water degassing, water filtration, water heating and water circulation systems are enclosed in the approximately 250- by 210- foot hatchery building. An egg receiving and processing room, an egg incubation room, start-up and rearing tanks, fish and water labs, offices, maintenance shops, a visitor center and an apartment for staff pulling overnight and weekend stand-by watches are also designed into the building.

The circular fish rearing tanks number eight 30-foot diameter, 20 10-foot diameter and four 5-foot diameter units. Initial plans list six of the 30-foot tanks being used for rainbow trout rearing.

One large tank is dedicated to king salmon and the last is earmarked for Arctic grayling. Arctic char and lake trout will be reared in some of the smaller tanks since they can be held in higher densities than the other species.

At full production, the hatchery will use about 1,200 gallons per minute of well water heated from about 38 degrees coming out of the ground to about 56 to 58 degrees for incubation and rearing. The total production numbers of fish at full capacity will depend on the species mix, but will number somewhere around a half million fish per year.

I was a little surprised at that figure. I thought it would be higher. As the hatchery staff works with the facility and figures the actual capabilities, I suspect more fish can and will be produced as the stocking needs of the area increase.

Other than rainbow trout, the eggs incubated and reared at the facility will mostly come from local area wild stocks and “remote” egg takes. Rainbow trout eggs are scheduled to come from broodstock being held at the Anchorage facility. No broodstock holding capacity exists in this Fairbanks hatchery.

The visitor center will hold a large aquarium and will have large, plate glass windows, allowing the visiting public to look out into the rearing area of the hatchery. Tours will generally be restricted to the visitor’s center because of possible contamination concerns from folks randomly wandering around the rearing tanks.

I would expect to see several informational posters and other visual aids in the visitor center explaining the function of the hatchery and how the fish produced are utilized in the stocking program. For drop-in visitors, I would expect the center to be self-guided, since the staff will be actively engaged full-time in the hatchery operations. I would also expect scheduled tours for school kids and other large groups would be handled by hatchery staff. At least, that’s how things were done in my era of hatchery operations.

The facility is still undergoing a lot of construction activity. Most of the mechanical elements are in place (heating, electrical, plumbing, etc.) and the metal wall studs are erected. However, several of the smaller fish start-up and rearing tanks are yet to be installed and the visitor’s center is only roughed in. Much work remains to be done before the scheduled June opening date arrives.

State law requires a small percentage of any construction cost to include art in a state building. The visitor center will receive most of that mandated expenditure, but I think there will be some outside work as well. For a working building, as this facility will be, one could argue the art costs could have been better utilized in some other area of construction. However, this building will also be a showpiece for the community, so a little window dressing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in my mind.

The facility is scheduled to begin operation at about half capacity, which will equal the historical stocking levels of the Interior region. Staff also anticipates having about a three-week shake-down period prior to eggs arriving at the facility.

Personally, I would prefer at least a month to be able to test-run the facility at various capacities and through various scenarios to make sure everything is functioning as designed. A little more lead time will allow being able to repair, replace or alter faulty or broken equipment and fittings before the eggs arrive. Once the eggs are in the incubators, the water needs to flow — period.

I hope to make a trip north this summer to see the finished hatchery in operation. I think it will be a valuable addition to the sport fishing program in Alaska.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.