Southeastern Fishes Council
In the News
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Fish Hatchery Will Be Home To Bass Conservation Center
February 26, 2004
Release from:
Jodie Munro O'Brien
The Daily Commercial (Leesburg, Florida)
The first steps in a more than $10 million project are expected to be taken within the next couple of weeks at the Richloam Fish Hatchery in Sumter County.
About 70 public officials gathered at the hatchery Thursday for the groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the future site of the Florida Bass Conservation Center.
Built in 1965, the Richloam Fish Hatchery is the state's principal producer of freshwater fish for stocking. It is one of only two freshwater fish hatcheries in the state run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Outdated ponds and incubation facilities have limited the agency's capacity to spawn, rear and harvest largemouth bass efficiently.
Rick Stout, hatchery administrator, said the current buildings hatchery workers use are about 5,000 square feet in size and will be demolished in the next two weeks.
He said the construction for a new building will begin once the others are gone. The new hatchery will be up to 30,000 square feet.
Inside that building will be room for expanded spawning facilities, as well as room to do research and pathology work.
Stout said the expansion was badly needed.
"Technology has advanced to the point where we can have more intensive fish culture in tanks. It's somewhat of an efficiency improvement," he said.
"It gives us more flexibility in the ways we can produce and raise fish."
Stout said pond culture only had been used before. He said one benefit to the expansion and move to some indoor culture would be cost and enabling better fish health. Ed Moyer, director of the Division of Freshwater Fisheries said the hatchery was looking to meet the needs of freshwater fish in the state.
He said the hope is to have the biggest hatchery in the Southeast dedicated to the propagation and conservation of fish such as the Florida largemouth bass.
Stout said the hatchery currently has 74 ponds and 55 acres of water, but will lose four ponds in construction. He said the hatchery produces between two million and four million fish per year, but they are still not meeting requests for fish throughout the state.
"We can't produce the number of fish we need," Stout said. "The number of fish we are requested to raise throughout the state has risen above our capacity.
"(With the improvements,) we will probably go to eight to ten million fish per year once we have the capacity to grow that many."
Stout said environmental factors such as pollution and habitat destruction have affected the number of fish in many areas.
"The hatchery steps in to mitigate from the environmental losses," he said.
Moyer said the first step in the expansion would cost $6.9 million, with the overall goal for improving the production facilities and research programs costing $12.3 million.
He said most of the funding for the expansion has come from the state legislature, federal grants and from sales of fishing licenses.
Moyer said they mainly work with sport or game fish, such as largemouth bass, bluegill, bream, redear sunfish and channel catfish.
"We're looking at habitat, stock enhancement and different types of rules," he said.
Stout said the hatchery mainly produces juvenile fish that can be transferred and released into lakes.
Until the new buildings are ready to use, the work of spawning fish will have to be done in the growing ponds rather than in the hatchery. These ponds, which range in size from 1/4 acre to 1 1/2 acre, are where the spawned fish are put to grow. While in the ponds they are fed, and they are later harvested to be stocked in a natural lake.
The main problem is that the water in the facility's 75 ponds is one of water control. In the hatchery they are able to maintain water temperatures and cleanliness much more efficiently than will be possible in the ponds.
Clean water kept at the right temperature is essential to successful fish breeding.
Once the new building is completed, the hatchery will have more control over its water than ever before.
Right now it can filter water coming into the hatchery, as well as heat it, cool it and add oxygen when needed. With the new system, the hatchery water will also be sanitized for bacteria and treated in other beneficial ways before being used to hatch fish. The capacity of water that can be treated will also rise. Currently the facility can run less than 1,200 gallons of treated water per minute, while the new system will allow 6,000 gallons per minute.
A comprehensive bass research library and 2,000 square-foot research laboratory will also be part of the new complex. Moyer said the next phase would be to seek private funding to construct a visitor's center at the site.
The visitor's center would feature information and exhibits on largemouth bass, freshwater fishes, aquatic ecology and modern fish hatchery operation and technology.
Public fishing and interpretive trails would complement the indoor exhibits.
Hatchery construction is expected to be completed by Fall 2005.
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