Hundreds of thousands of eyeballs, like black flecks of pepper, stared up from translucent fish eggs spread on a mailing tray at the Erwin National Fish Hatchery in northeast Tennessee.
“It takes about 14 days for our fish to get what you’re seeing – 'strong eye' – and be sturdy enough to handle this process,” Tyler Hern, supervisory fish biologist, said.
Colt Brewer, facilities operations specialist, gently poured another sieve brimming with brook trout eggs onto a tray. Next to him, fish biologist David Teague prepared their mailing box with ice.
These eggs were bound for Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery in central Tennessee, where over the next 12 to 18 months they would grow into sleek adult trout destined for dam tailwaters.
That’s where anglers casting lines from a riverbank or boat might first meet them.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has partnered with USFWS to raise trout at Erwin and Dale Hollow hatcheries in Tennessee, and the Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery in Georgia, since 2013.
Each year, the hatcheries raise rainbow, brown and brook trout that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Georgia Department of Natural Resources release into TVA tailwaters.
The agreement brings invaluable benefits to communities.
“When money comes to a place like Erwin National Fish Hatchery, it has ripple effects,” Hern said. “It allows us to produce several million eggs a year that support tailwater fisheries, which are huge economic drivers for the outdoor industry in our region.”
And the benefits eclipse economics.
“People have these stories and experiences that you can’t put money to,” Shannon O’Quinn, TVA senior water resources specialist, said. “They’ll say, ‘This was the place my kids caught their first trout. It’s important to me. It’s important to my family. It’s a part of our community.’”
Erwin NFH is proud to be part of the east Tennessee community and is thankful for the strong and productive partnership with TVA that helps bring accessible angling opportunities to so many citizens across the country.
Written by Susan Ehrenclou, TVA.
