The Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center, formerly known as Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center, is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facility dedicated to fish culture techniques for threatened and endangered fishes of the American Southwest. Located in Dexter, New Mexico, it is the only federal facility in the nation dedicated to studying and holding only threatened and endangered fish. Scientists at the Dexter facility perform life history studies and carefully analyze fish genetics while maintaining a refuge for 16 imperiled fish species. Dexter National Fish Hatchery was established in 1931, to satisfy demands for game fish throughout the Southwest. New laws brought changes to the hatchery in the 1970s.
In 2021, the Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center held 14 warmwater fish species. Five of those are their main species, with the rest only spawning intermittently or being maintained as refuge populations.
The station maintains a genetically diverse broodstock for each species. Fish are raised from these broodstocks with the intent of reintroducing them into their native habitat.
Close monitoring at the hatchery include developing propagation and culture techniques, conducting water quality data, diet and nutrition testing, life history studies, reproductive physiology and genetic management.
Dexter's Conservation Genetics Laboratory is fully equipped for routine genetic analysis with modern equipment designed to generate genetic information from microsatellite markers, and DNA sequences. Dexter's program of rearing threatened and endangered fish relies on this data to provide genetically appropriate fish for stocking, and to monitor the purity of 16 species of endangered fish that are held as refugium stocks.
Dexter's future Conservation Genetics program includes the short-term goal of developing genetic baselines for all species cultured and maintained at Dexter. Genetic information will be used to develop strategies for ensuring that genetic diversity is maintained in captive stocks, and to avoid such pitfalls as domestication selection, or genetic drift.
Dexter's long-term goals for the Conservation Genetics program is to use the laboratory to address genetic components of multi regional Recovery programs, and to aid in the accomplishment of the Southwest Regions Fisheries Program Strategic Plan goals. These objectives are attainable through the use of science and technology, by developing and applying genetic conservation principles to the management of species produced and maintained at Dexter, thereby increasing the success of resources conservation.
Traditionally, the spawning season at the Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center starts in March and ends in mid-June. The techniques the Center employs are induced spawning and natural spawning. Seventeen different species on the endangered and threatened list are spawned at the center.
Broodfish from these species are purposely reared at the center for spawning. Each year the center will spawn over 350 pairs of the broodfish using the induced spawning method. These pairs will produce over 3.5 million eggs. This count does not include those that will spawn naturally in the earthen ponds. Fish from each spawn will be taken and held at the station for future broodstock, ensuring genetic diversity. Different pairs of each species are spawned each year, discouraging spawning of the same fish year after year.
The success the center has experienced in spawning is evident in its distribution of the species into their natural habitat. Without this type of intervention the chances of these species being extinct would almost be certain.
Currently, the Center uses four different methods. These methods are used as an identification tool. Biologists both in the field and on-site are able to identify fish that are reared at a facility versus those that are wild:
The National Fish Hatchery System (NFHS) was established by the U.S. Congress in 1871 through the creation of a U.S. Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries. This system of fish hatcheries is now administered by the Fisheries Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior.
The rainbow trout is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout(O. m. irideus) or Columbia River redband trout (O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to freshwater to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been introduced into the Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead.
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) or Columbia River redband trout. Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and North America. Like other sea-run (anadromous) trout and salmon, steelhead spawn in freshwater, smolts migrate to the ocean to forage for several years and adults return to their natal streams to spawn. Steelhead are iteroparous, although survival is approximately 10–20%.
The Apache trout or Arizona trout, Oncorhynchus apache, is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. It is one of the Pacific trouts.
Oncorhynchus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae, native to coldwater tributaries of the North Pacific basin. The genus contains twelve extant species, namely six species of Pacific salmon and six species of Pacific trout, all of which are migratory mid-level predatory fish that display natal homing and semelparity.
The June sucker is an endangered species of fish endemic to Utah Lake and the Provo River in the U.S. state of Utah. It is named after the month in which it spawns. It is a gray or brownish fish with a paler belly, growing up to about 24 in (61 cm). It lives alongside the Utah sucker, which has a much wider range. Due to the populations of both fish becoming greatly reduced in the lake as a result of fishing, other species such as the common carp have been introduced into the lake. As a result, the June sucker has become "critically endangered" as the pure species is lost as a result of hybridization with the Utah sucker, and predatory fish feed on its larvae. Conservation measures have been put in place and fish are being raised in a fish hatchery for reintroduction.
Broodstock, or broodfish, are a group of mature individuals used in aquaculture for breeding purposes. Broodstock can be a population of animals maintained in captivity as a source of replacement for, or enhancement of, seed and fry numbers. These are generally kept in ponds or tanks in which environmental conditions such as photoperiod, temperature and pH are controlled. Such populations often undergo conditioning to ensure maximum fry output. Broodstock can also be sourced from wild populations where they are harvested and held in maturation tanks before their seed is collected for grow-out to market size or the juveniles returned to the sea to supplement natural populations. This method, however, is subject to environmental conditions and can be unreliable seasonally, or annually. Broodstock management can improve seed quality and number through enhanced gonadal development and fecundity.
The lake sturgeon, also known as the rock sturgeon, is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of about 25 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is a bottom feeder and has a partly cartilaginous skeleton, an overall streamlined shape, and skin bearing rows of bony plates on the sides and back.
A fish hatchery is a place for artificial breeding, hatching, and rearing through the early life stages of animals—finfish and shellfish in particular. Hatcheries produce larval and juvenile fish, shellfish, and crustaceans, primarily to support the aquaculture industry where they are transferred to on-growing systems, such as fish farms, to reach harvest size. Some species that are commonly raised in hatcheries include Pacific oysters, shrimp, Indian prawns, salmon, tilapia and scallops.
The pallid sturgeon is an endangered species of ray-finned fish, endemic to the waters of the Missouri and lower Mississippi river basins of the United States. It may have even reached the St. Croix River before colonization.
The razorback sucker is a suckerfish found in rivers and lakes in the southwestern United States and formerly northwestern Mexico. It can grow to 91 cm (3 ft) in length and is recognisable by the keel between its head and dorsal fin. It used to inhabit much of the Colorado River Basin but commercial fishing, river damming, and habitat loss have caused great declines in populations. It is now restricted to the Colorado River upstream of the Grand Canyon and to four reservoirs, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, Lake Havasu, and Lake Powell.
Tilapia has become the third most important fish in aquaculture after carp and salmon; worldwide production exceeded 1.5 million metric tons in 2002 and increases annually. Because of their high protein content, large size, rapid growth, and palatability, a number of coptodonine and oreochromine cichlids—specifically, various species of Coptodon, Oreochromis, and Sarotherodon—are the focus of major aquaculture efforts.
The bonytail chub or bonytail is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States; it has been extirpated from the part of the basin in Mexico. It was once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers and range have declined to the point where it has been listed as endangered since 1980 (ESA) and 1986 (IUCN), a fate shared by the other large Colorado basin endemic fish species like the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. It is now the rarest of the endemic big-river fishes of the Colorado River. There are 20 species in the genus Gila, seven of which are found in Arizona.
The Bayou darter is a rare species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is endemic to western Mississippi in the United States, where it is found only in Bayou Pierre and its tributaries. Its typical habitat is fast-flowing creeks and streams, in riffles and in areas between riffles with firm gravel bottoms. It feeds on small insects and their larvae. Breeding probably takes place twice a year, in spring and late summer. The population of this fish is declining due to loss of suitable habitat. This is caused by siltation and pollution, particularly erosion caused by changes in land use. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being "endangered".
White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facility located along the historic Midland Trail in the Allegheny Highlands of southeast West Virginia. Established in 1900 or 1902 to produce fish for the American public, the fish hatchery became part of the National Broadstock Program in 1976. In 1995, a freshwater mussel conservation program was added.
The Montana Arctic grayling is a North American freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. The Montana Arctic grayling, native to the upper Missouri River basin in Montana and Wyoming, is a disjunct population or subspecies of the more widespread Arctic grayling. It occurs in fluvial and adfluvial, lacustrine forms. The Montana grayling is a species of special concern in Montana and had candidate status for listing under the national Endangered Species Act. It underwent a comprehensive status review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which in 2014 decided not to list it as threatened or endangered. Current surviving native populations in the Big Hole River and Red Rock River drainages represent approximately four percent of the subspecies' historical range.
Speyeria zerene hippolyta, the Oregon silverspot, is a threatened butterfly that is found in the U.S. states of California and Oregon. It is a subspecies of Speyeria zerene.
Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) is one of the research institutes under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi to serve as the nodal agency for catering to the needs of the brackishwater aquaculture research in India. The institute is headquartered at Santhome High Road, Raja Annamalai Puram, Chennai with a research centre at Kakdwip in West Bengal and an experimental field station at Muttukadu, roughly 30 km to the south of Chennai. The institute works under the Ministry of Agriculture, India.
Saratoga National Fish Hatchery is part of the National Fish Hatchery System operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is located northeast of Saratoga, Wyoming and, along with the Jackson National Fish Hatchery, is one of two National fish hatcheries operating in Wyoming. Saratoga NHF is primarily a broodstock hatchery; it maintains several healthy adults to produce sperm and eggs and distributes fertilized eggs to production hatcheries throughout the country to be hatched and grown to stockable sizes. It is also one of several organizations to establish a program for breeding Wyoming toads.
The John W. Mumma Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold water fish production facility located near Playa Blanca State Wildlife Area and the Rio Grande in Alamosa County.