Built in 1980, the Salmon River Fish Hatchery specializes in raising steelhead, chinook salmon, coho salmon, brown trout and landlocked salmon. Originally constructed to revive and enhance the fishery of the Great Lakes, this facility provides most of the fish for the now multi-million dollar Lake Ontario salmonid fishery. Each year this hatchery produces more than 2,000,000 fingerlings (young fish 3-5 inches long) and close to 1,000,000 yearlings (fish one year old or over).
Located in Altmar, NY, the Salmon River Fish Hatchery supplies fish for more than 100 public waters including Lake Ontario. Each year, the hatchery stocks 3.5 million trout and salmon, and nine million walleye fry. Serving an eleven-county area, hatchery personnel travel many miles delivering fish to their designated stocking sites. The fish are transported on trucks that are specially equipped with tanks of oxygenated water. Small fish are loaded onto the stocking trucks by hand via the use of scap nets, while larger fish are usually loaded by means of a device called a fish pump.
Self-guided tours of this accessible facility are available to observe what happens inside a working fish hatchery. There are informational exhibits and mounted fish. Accessible bathrooms are available as well. For current information on the fish and the hatchery call (315) 298-5051. There is designated accessible parking at the hatchery entrance.
Dec Fish Hatchery, Fishing Piers
exhibits, fishing, trail