State wildlife officials to shut Northern California fish hatchery, citing costs
California wildlife officials will shut down a state-run fish hatchery in Humboldt County, ending more than 50 years of operations due to rising costs, aging infrastructure and federal limits on steelhead production.
The Mad River Fish Hatchery, which raises a modest number of steelhead and rainbow trout and serves as an access point to the picturesque Mad River for recreation and fishing, will close in June after decades of financial challenges, said Peter Tira, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“It’s a bit of a sad day for us here,” Tira said Friday from the hatchery near Arcata, about 200 miles northwest of Sacramento. In addition to financial woes that led the hatchery to be briefly closed during a state budget crunch in 2004, the facility needed $40 million in repairs to fix old wells, broken concrete and other infrastructure, he said.
The hatchery, the smallest of the state’s 21 hatchery facilities, opened in 1971 and initially raised Chinook and inland salmon in addition to steelhead and rainbow trout, the agency said in a news release about the planned closing.
Because the Northern California steelhead found in the Mad River are federally protected as a threatened species, the hatchery is limited to raising only 150,000 fry per year under regulations meant to preserve the wild DNA of fish that breed naturally in the waterway, the agency said. By comparison, it raises and releases 450,000 steelhead and 4.6 million salmon every year at its Trinity River Hatchery near Lewiston, some 60 miles inland.
The hatchery stopped breeding salmon years ago because the fish were not returning to the Mad River to spawn, Tira said. The reason turned out to be inherent in the structure of the hatchery: it was built to operate with well water rather than river water. This led the baby fish to imprint on the well water; when the time came to come back from the ocean to spawn, they did not know where to go.
In addition to $10 million in immediate repairs and $30 million in longer-term infrastructure fixes, the department estimated that it would need an additional $1 million a year to continue to operate the hatchery. The facility also required upgrades to meet federal requirements, including the development of a genetic management plan for the steelhead, Tira said.
While most of the state’s other hatcheries are owned by the federal government or other entities, the Mad River facility is owned by the state, so California is on the hook for any needed repairs, Tira said.
“Quite simply, the steelhead program is no longer viable,” said Jason Roberts, inland fisheries program manager for the department’s northern region. “The Mad River Fish Hatchery is no longer providing much, if any, conservation benefit to the species nor the intended recreation or sport fishing benefits in the Mad River.”
The hatchery will release its remaining steelhead into the river later this spring, and cease operations in June, Roberts said in the statement.
The hatchery property will remain open for tourists and local residents for whom it is a popular place for picnics, birding and river access, CDFW officials said. Its parking lot is often used by people spending a day hiking or fishing in the area.
“A few people have pointed out the irony of a government agency complaining about government regulation,” Tira said Friday. “It’s the reality here.”
