Taking Stock

An early morning mist rises from the waters, revealing what lies below. As if on cue, a worker at the Quinebaug Valley State Trout Hatchery breaks the surface and the stillness with a long-handled dip net, pulling up maybe a dozen rainbow trout from a circular tank. He weighs the fish, then hands the net to a colleague, who heaves the load into a truck. It goes on like this, net after net, for nearly an hour, until the truck is brimming with about 2,000, 1-pound fish on their way to the big leagues.

Hatcheries like this one in Central Village, Connecticut, exist to support sport fishing’s 60 million anglers. There are about 809 hatcheries and fish culture support facilities that raise fish for stocking. Some solely provide fish for put-and-take fisheries; others raise threatened or endangered species for conservation. In practice, most hatcheries do both. It’s big business, with the infrastructure alone valued at $10.2 billion, according to a 2018 paper published by the American Fisheries Society. Quinebaug estimates the live value of its fish at $1.4 million — about $5 per fish.

Nearly two centuries after the practice began in this country, stocking lakes, streams and coastal waters with hatchery-raised fish remains a complex and sometimes controversial practice. Proponents say hatchery stocks make