11-22-2010, 12:49 AM
Just got this from Stripercraze...
Also heard by the commission was a status update on the Lake Mead Fish Hatchery by Fisheries Staff Specialist Caroline Cherry. The facility has been held in a non-operational mode, with no trout production, since shortly after the discovery of quagga mussels in the Lower Colorado River System in Jan. 2007. Another emerging factor that led to the suspension of trout production was high water temperatures associated with low water levels in Lake Mead due to an unprecedented 11 year drought in the Colorado River system. This closure came just one year after the hatchery reopened following a two-year, $17 million renovation project.
order to keep up trout production in Southern Nevada while the agency began searching for a quagga-free source of water at the hatchery that is cold enough for trout rearing
the meantime NDOW entered into a cooperative agreement with the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery on Lake Mohave. That, Cherry explained, allowed the wildlife agency
rear approximately 50,000 trout per year in net pens at the federal facility. These fish have been released exclusively in Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. Changes are now in the wind, however, as the cooperative agreement comes to an end in March 2011.
addition to the net pen operation at Willow Beach, NDOW increased trout production at its Mason Valley Fish Hatchery to make up for the loss of production at the Lake Mead facility. This has allowed NDOW to continue trout plants at the Southern Nevada urban ponds, but the facility cannot produce enough trout to continue planting fish in Lake Mead and Lake Mohave, said Cherry. Thus, the 2010-2011 stocking season will be the last for those waters.
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Also heard by the commission was a status update on the Lake Mead Fish Hatchery by Fisheries Staff Specialist Caroline Cherry. The facility has been held in a non-operational mode, with no trout production, since shortly after the discovery of quagga mussels in the Lower Colorado River System in Jan. 2007. Another emerging factor that led to the suspension of trout production was high water temperatures associated with low water levels in Lake Mead due to an unprecedented 11 year drought in the Colorado River system. This closure came just one year after the hatchery reopened following a two-year, $17 million renovation project.
order to keep up trout production in Southern Nevada while the agency began searching for a quagga-free source of water at the hatchery that is cold enough for trout rearing
the meantime NDOW entered into a cooperative agreement with the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery on Lake Mohave. That, Cherry explained, allowed the wildlife agency
rear approximately 50,000 trout per year in net pens at the federal facility. These fish have been released exclusively in Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. Changes are now in the wind, however, as the cooperative agreement comes to an end in March 2011.
addition to the net pen operation at Willow Beach, NDOW increased trout production at its Mason Valley Fish Hatchery to make up for the loss of production at the Lake Mead facility. This has allowed NDOW to continue trout plants at the Southern Nevada urban ponds, but the facility cannot produce enough trout to continue planting fish in Lake Mead and Lake Mohave, said Cherry. Thus, the 2010-2011 stocking season will be the last for those waters.
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