News
The 2022 year was a successful year for striped bass at the Mammoth Spring NFH. While the hatchery was short on its production goals, this year yielded a much higher success than the previous year. The learning curve from last year to this year proved to be worth the time and effort. This year, to gain higher survival rates, the station received fry from three different sources. This allowed the station to promote more diversity in fry condition and survival. The result determined that fry received from a closer location yielded the best survival. In addition to being closer (less travel time), the fry were transported in a distribution tank and not bags. The other two fry sources were transported in bags, inside of boxes. One of the “bagged” methods was transported through hatchery personnel. The other “bagged” fry source was received from a mail carrier service. We believe that the distribution tank method was more successful due to less stress on the fish, with less increased temperature variation and less handling stress. The Hatchery was able to transport tens of thousands of Phase I fish to a lake managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Illinois, as part of an on-going reimbursable agreement. We also held back a few thousand stripers for grow-out to Phase II size (over 6”). Those Phase II fish will go into waters within the State of Illinois to assist in promoting restoration of the species. With this year’s successes, we will continue to improve our methodologies to promote restoration efforts for the striped bass.
