Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery

Dams and the reservoirs they create change the natural flow of the river they impound and affect water temperatures below the dam. Mitigation is accomplished by stocking rainbow and brook trout -- fish that thrive in the cooler waters released below dams.    

The high quality and efficient trout we produce are just one aspect of our fish production that creates a positive ripple effect for all Americans. Recreational fishing for hatchery-produced trout results in considerable expenditures on recreation-related goods and services such as lodging, transportation, boats, fishing equipment, and other gear used by the fishing public. Everyone feels the positive economic impact, not just those associated with addressing the needs of anglers. This is especially important in small towns and rural areas near us and other national fish hatcheries. 

• In 2020, for every $1 spent of the hatchery's operational budget, $40 was put back into the economy.  This amounts to a total economic output of more than $29 million from taxes, jobs created, and retail sales (gas, food, lodging, rods and reels, and bait and tackle), all of which was created because of the trout produced by the hatchery.
• We produce approximately 700,000 trout annually, primarily working in partnership with the Arkansas and Oklahoma state game and fish agencies to help the states meet their trout-management goals. The trout we produce will be stocked into the cold tailwaters below U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operated dams located in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.    
• The hatchery trout life cycle begins when we receive fertilized eggs from the brood stock hatchery. Most eggs we receive are provided by Erwin National Fish Hatchery, a national broodstock broodstock
  The reproductively mature adults in a population that breed (or spawn) and produce more individuals (offspring or progeny).
  
  Learn more about broodstock hatchery in Erwin, Tennessee. 
• Once hatched, the young fish are vulnerable and bio-security procedures must be followed to protect the fish from disease or physical harm.  Only staff are permitted in the juvenile fish-rearing area. 
• As the eggs hatch and the yolk sacs are absorbed, the young trout swim up from the bottom of the troughs and are fed commercial fish food five to six times a day.  When they reach a size of approximately three inches (four-five months old), the fingerling trout are transferred to outdoor fish rearing raceways. 
• Once outside the fish are fed and cared and over the next twenty months they will reach a stockable size of approximately eleven inches long.  Each raceway of fish may be fed from one to three times a day depending on the size of the fish. 
• Throughout the year fish are harvested from the raceways and distributed by truck for stocking in suitable tailwaters in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.  
• We receive approximately 1 million fertilized rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brook (Salvelinus fontinalis) trout eggs from national brood stock hatcheries each year. This enables us to stock approximately 200,000 pounds of fish each year.  
• Trout produced at the hatchery enhance and increase recreational fishing opportunities in waters that have been modified by federal water development projects in Arkansas and Oklahoma. This has provided an enormous economic boost to the economy of many of these areas, generating business and income for people and local governments.