June 2022 - 20

Fish culturists at the Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery use brushes to clean outdoor raceways to make sure the fish within have a healthy environment to grow. (Photo by Chris Martin/WGFD)
I
n 1736, Benjamin Franklin advised
fire-threatened Philadelphians that,
" An ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure. " The Founding Father was
making the point that preventing fires was
easier and cheaper than fighting them.
This timeless advice also can be applied to
keeping diseases and unwanted organisms
out of fish hatcheries.
The introduction of an infectious disease
or invasive species could be devastating to a
fish hatchery and immensely expensive for
the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Last year the department spent $5.8 million
raising and stocking more than 6.5 million
fish in 368 waters across the state. The
majority of fish - cold-water varieties of
trout - come from the department's 10
hatcheries and rearing stations. To protect
its investment, Game and Fish has strict
biosecurity protocols in place at its hatcheries.
" Biosecurities are a list of measures and
tight protocols that we enact to prevent
spread of diseases or invasive species in a
hatchery, " said Lars Alsager, superintendent
20 | June 2022
of Game and Fish's Dan Speas Fish Hatchery
outside Casper. " A healthy hatchery starts
with a plan and then sticking to it. "
An important component of a hatchery's
biosecurity plan involves reducing stress in
the fish.
" Anything you do to a fish provides a level
of stress, " Alsager said. " The more you can
reduce the amount of stress, the healthier
those fish are going to be. "
One stressor by itself - such as high
density, warm water, diet or a dip in oxygen
levels - doesn't make fish sick right away.
But compounding stressors end up being
the tipping point. " We work to prevent that
from happening, " Alsager said.
Identifying stressors requires attention to
detail, knowing where a threat might arise
and having a plan to stop the threat in its
tracks.
" We treat the hatcheries like an island, "
said Guy Campbell, fish culture supervisor
for Game and Fish. " How do you protect
your island? If something comes up, how are
you going to keep it from spreading? You
think about this every day and you practice
it every day. "

June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2022

June 2022 - 1
June 2022 - 2
June 2022 - 3
June 2022 - 4
June 2022 - 5
June 2022 - 6
June 2022 - 7
June 2022 - 8
June 2022 - 9
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2021
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