Welaka National Fish Hatchery Aquarium - Welaka, FL
N 29° 28.459 W 081° 40.037
17R E 435304 N 3260723
The Welaka National Fish Hatchery Aquarium is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since.
Waymark Code: WM3Z15
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2008
Views: 53
The Fish Hatchery Aquarium and Visitors Center is located within the Welaka Unit. Fish raised at the hatchery, as well as other native species of fish, amphibians, and reptiles, are on display at the aquarium.
From the
Welaka National Fish Hatchery website: "The Welaka National Fish hatchery is part of a major national emphasis on restoring the Gulf Coast Striped Bass (also called rockfish). Adult stripers, captured from our rivers and reared at the hatchery, provide the eggs for the hatchery program. Once the eggs and milt (sperm) are taken, the adults taken from the wild are returned to their native waters. The fertilized eggs are incubated, and the larval fry that hatch from the eggs are cultured artificially. Newborn fish have their own food supply in an attached yolk sac. After this source is absorbed, the tiny fish are transferred to hatchery rearing ponds where they feed on a natural diet of microscopic organisms. Young striped bass are particularly vulnerable to pollution, starvation, and predators during these stages and in the wild, untold numbers are lost. However, on the hatchery the fish are protected and experience the best possible conditions for surviving. After 25 to 40 days, these fish grow to an average length of 2 inches and some are stocked at this size. Others are held and fed scientifically formulated diets to attain maximum growth. By the fall, these fish have reached a size of 6 to 8 inches and are ready for stocking. These larger fish are stocked into special areas of selected river systems and tributaries from which they originated. Fishery managers expect that these supplemental stockings will help restore depleted striped bass populations. A number of fish are tagged, enabling biologists to evaluate the success of the stocking programs."