Home
-----Club Information----
About us
Hatchery
Join us
Volunteer
Our Sponsors
Contact us
-----Atlantic Salmon-----
Biology
History
Statistics
The River
---------Newsletter--------
This month's
Last month's
Archives
Photos
Links
Site Map
-
|
Welcome to the Saco River Salmon Club and our Salmon Hatchery
Our Non-Profit club started in 1983 with a
small incubator on the Saco River. In 1997 we closed down that
site and built a two floor state-of-the-art hatchery overlooking the
tidal waters of the Saco River at Marblehead Lane in Biddeford, Maine.
Since then we have
stocked several million Atlantic salmon fry which our volunteer
membership have raised from fertilized eggs produced by adult
salmon cared for at the Craig Brook Hatchery, a U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service hatchery located in Ellsworth, Maine.
Each year, starting in January when we receive our eggs, volunteers
spend hundreds of hours caring for the incubating eggs. While the
eggs are developing we are busy negotiating upstream and downstream
passage for the adult salmon. We also host tours at our hatchery,
bringing in hundreds of school age students, boy scouts, girl scouts,
university students, interns, and interested groups and individuals who
want to learn more about the Atlantic salmon.
When the eggs have hatched out and the fry start to feed, usually by
mid-May, we transport them to large and small tributaries of the Saco
River and the Big Ossippe River in Maine. We check in on them several times in their growth to parr and smolt stage. We also monitor returning adult salmon and work to improve spawning habitat within the watershed.
Be sure to take a virtual tour of our hatchery to learn more about the
Atlantic salmon and the equipment we use to help with its restoration
in the Saco River watershed.
|
|
