Water quality problems at the Norfork hatchery

[netboy]

Saw this on Jeremy Hunt's website. Looks they have lost quite a few fish due to low oxygen levels and higher water temps. The hatchery report is at the bottom after the fishing report.

  White River & Norfork Fishery Report – Taking What the River Gives You

[Quillback]

It doesn't sound good, as it appears there is no easy fix.  This is the hatchery that provides the fish for the White and Norfork tailwaters right?  I believe Arkansas does stock some tout in those tailwaters, but it is not comparable to what the feds stock.  

[tjm]

From here in the rocking chair, it sounds like time to install a cooling unit and an air compressor. Might cost a bit but if this is an ongoing condition of the lake, then the alternative would be to convert the hatchery to producing crappie. 

It does sound like the tailwater itself is marginal for trout survival though if it is getting water at the same depth and conditions. 

[netboy]

15 hours ago, Quillback said:

It doesn't sound good, as it appears there is no easy fix.  This is the hatchery that provides the fish for the White and Norfork tailwaters right?  I believe Arkansas does stock some tout in those tailwaters, but it is not comparable to what the feds stock.  

We have 3 trout hatcheries in Arkansas, 2 federal (Norfork and Greers Ferry) and 1 operated by the state (Jim Hinkle Mammoth Spring).

I looked up the average annual production capacity of each during "normal" years, if there is such a thing these days.

Norfork was the largest with 2.5 million

Greers Ferry was 1 million

Jim Hinkle was 800,000

So, with the problems at Norfork, we may see a considerable reduction in stocking. 

With that said, it be may a good time for AGFC to think about expanding the catch and release areas.

[jdmidwest]

And the Federal Hatchery at Mammoth Spring.  But Mammoth Spring and Jim Hinkle took a hit this spring in a bad flood.  Not sure if they have made repairs and are producing fish again.  2 weeks ago, Jim Hinkle looked about the same as it did back in May.

[tjm]

If the Federal stocking is in mitigation of the lost native fisheries, as I think it is, the Feds would be legally obligated to furnish trout from some other source. A certain number of trout annually is typically a part of the negotiations when the Army wants to build a dam that has out flow cold enough to kill the native fishery. I'm not sure that is true on the White and the Northfork, but presume that it is.   

[jdmidwest]

11 hours ago, tjm said:

If the Federal stocking is in mitigation of the lost native fisheries, as I think it is, the Feds would be legally obligated to furnish trout from some other source. A certain number of trout annually is typically a part of the negotiations when the Army wants to build a dam that has out flow cold enough to kill the native fishery. I'm not sure that is true on the White and the Northfork, but presume that it is.   

Probably won't risk contamination of the locals from outside sources.  Hinkle was quarantined in the past from a copepod infestation.  The could not deliver trout to White or Norfork.  That system has naturally reproducing stock of brown and possibly other species of trout.  Can't risk killing them.

The trout programs are really jacked up when you look at how they manage them in every state.  They are a stocked fish 90 percent of the places they exist in the lower states.  They were introduced in Missouri and Arkansas by man.  Maybe some native trout in the Smokies of Ky and Tn, but rest are state and farm raised.

[tjm]

In my mind all modern trout are artificial. In the few places where indigenous trout remain, I think most species have been contaminated by stocking of other species or subspecies. Hard to justify protecting a fish that exists only to be stocked for recreational use. 

If my memory serves, there were no native trout east of the Mississippi, only the two chars; brook trout and lake trout. Rainbow Trout and  the char Dolly Varden were native only to the streams draining directly into the Pacific. The Great Basin and the Rockies had only Cutthroat trout and and the char  Bull Trout. Browns were strictly European. As were the common carp that were imported at the same time. 

I was going to refresh my memory but apparently the USGS no longer has a website. 

[netboy]

15 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

And the Federal Hatchery at Mammoth Spring.  But Mammoth Spring and Jim Hinkle took a hit this spring in a bad flood.  Not sure if they have made repairs and are producing fish again.  2 weeks ago, Jim Hinkle looked about the same as it did back in May.

I forgot about the Federal Hatchery at Mammoth Spring. They do have 2 raceways for raising trout as well as a bunch of ponds for other species.

[jdmidwest]

8 hours ago, netboy said:

I forgot about the Federal Hatchery at Mammoth Spring. They do have 2 raceways for raising trout as well as a bunch of ponds for other species.

They were flooded out in the spring flood that took the railroad bridge just past it downstream with a train sitting on it waiting for a tornado to pass.  I was a major flood event.

Originally, the Federal hatchery was raising Stripers and Smallmouth along with other projects in the ponds.  The trout were just being used as food for the Stripers.  But things had shifted since the Clinton years and they were back to trout.