Learn About Trout At Hatchery Open Day - Snowy Mountains Magazine

THE Gaden Trout Hatchery will showcase its new facility with an extravaganza Open Day and Gone Fishing Day event in October. The Hatchery has undergone an extensive $8.6 million renovation including state-of-the-art upgrades to trout breeding facilities plus will open a renovated tourist centre where visitors can learn about trout breeding and fish conservation across the region. Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty said the multi-million-dollar upgrades to production capabilities and tourist facilities were completed in late-March this year. “The upgrades include a new hatchery featuring hi-tech recirculating aquaculture systems that control water temperatures to allow faster and more efficient fingerling production and management of broodstock,” said Minister Moriarty. “We can also better protect fisheries after enhancing the capacity to rapidly rebuild any fisheries impacted by severe weather or drought.” Up to three million rainbow, brown and brook trout plus Atlantic salmon and tiger trout are stocked across NSW each year. Gaden being one of the main producers, breed over one million at their facility per annum. Fish bred at Gaden are distributed as far as Bathurst and Goulburn into the central region, plus extensively across the Snowy Mountains region. The new aquaculture production facility at the Hatchery features temperature-controlled tanks, which will boost the production capacity. “In the new shed I’ve got four new systems that are temperature controlled. When the weather is snowing and the rivers running at two degrees, and eggs are very slow to develop, I can set the temperature to 10 degrees or warmer temperature, get eggs hatching out quickly and start the process of breeding and then releasing fish a lot earlier with the new systems,” said Mitch Elkins, Gaden Trout Hatchery manager.

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