[Donna] We're gonna go fishing. Fishing.
[♫ upbeat guitar music ♫]
Hi, my name is Donna
and I'm an Interpreter with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
I love to fish
and here in Colorado, I can fish year round.
I've caught many species of fish but you can imagine my surprise
when I found out we have kokanee salmon here in Colorado's waters.
So that got me to wondering, where did these fish come from?
Hmmm?
[Boing]
So now, come with me. And, we're gonna go visit the Mt. Shavano Fish Hatchery
where we're going to learn how Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages our aquatic species.
[♫ upbeat guitar music ♫]
Welcome.
We're here at the Mt. Shavano Fish Hatchery located in Salida, Colorado.
They are currently managing around 7 species of fish
so they have their work cut out for them.
So, come on and join me as we take a closer look.
[Donna off screen] Fish hatcheries, like Mt. Shavano, are places that spawn, hatch,
and rear fish to stock the state's lakes and rivers.
The two main jobs of fish hatcheries are to support opportunities to go angling or fishing,
and to sustain native aquatic species.
To learn more about what's hatching here at Mt. Shavano,
we're gonna talk to Bryan the Hatchery Manager.
Well the Mt. Shavano Fish Hatchery, its the second largest hatchery in the state of Colorado.
It's part of the 19 hatcheries that are run by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
And here at Mt. Shavano, we generally raise about 550,000 ten inch trout
which we call a catchable trout.
And these are rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and cutbows which
is a cross between a rainbow and a cutthroat.
And then, on top of that, we do another 2 - 3 million subcatchables, 2 - 5 inches.
And these are trout, kokanee salmon, and arctic grayling.
Fish hatcheries are important to Colorado, not only for the sport fishier,
so to support the anglers that use the resource and make sure that there's fish
available for them to catch.
But also, for the native species [and] species conservation.
So, many anglers like myself, enjoy catching and eating kokanee salmon.
Can you tell me why you raise the kokanee salmon and what does that involve?
So, Colorado Parks and Wildlife raises kokanee salmon as a sport fish.
A lot of the reasons for this is because they are fairly easy to catch
and they also taste really good.
At Mt. Shavano, we get our eggs, most of our eggs, from the Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery.
These salmon, they live in Blue Mesa Reservoir and just like they would in [the]
ocean environment, they run the inlet river.
They swim 20 plus miles up that river to the raceways at the Roaring Judy Hatchery.
And then, hatchery technicians, biologists, and volunteers,
they strip the females of the eggs. They fertilize these eggs and then
these eggs are shipped to Mt. Shavano or other hatcheries. And from there,
the hatchery techs at one of these hatcheries will feed them - hatch them,
feed them and grow them. And then, stock them back into the many lakes and rivers
that receive kokanee salmon.
The cutthroat trout is the only native trout in Colorado.
And one of the subspecies is the greenback cutthroat.
And this greenback cutthroat, its also our state fish of Colorado.
And, a lot of these places if we didn't keep up with it, they wouldn't have
any cutthroats on the landscape. So, in order to keep this going, we brought in
some of the fish from the wild into the hatchery. And from there, we spawn
these fish and we started a broodstock.
So, what is it like to work at a hatchery?
So at a fish hatchery, we have what we call a hatchery technician.
And these hatchery technicians are the workers that take care of all the
daily needs of all the trout and salmon and eggs on the hatchery.
They raise the fish from the time they're a tiny egg up until they are a catchable trout.
And part of this involves feeding and cleaning and sorting and moving these fish.
They also look for signs of disease or parasites.
Look at water quality parameters.
The other jobs we have available are mainly seasonal jobs or volunteer positions.
But one of the best ways to get these positions is to actually to contact the hatchery.
Also, go visit the place. Go volunteer.
All the seasonal work, whether a temporary or even a volunteer, it really helps
if you want to in the future become a hatchery technician.
[♫ upbeat guitar music ♫]
So today I learned, Mt. Shavano and all of our hatcheries are very important places
for both our native species of fish and our sports fish.
Without all their hard work, it would make it difficult for us to catch fish
and also make it hard for our native species to survive.
I hope you enjoyed learning about hatcheries like I did today.
If you're interested in learning more or if you would like to volunteer or work at a hatchery,
please explore the links below.
[♫ upbeat guitar music ♫]