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.
Early 2009, we held and then released several
thousand parr to test our hatchery equipment to learn what it would
take (read: cost) to raise 20,000 parr which is our next goal.
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.
|
|
