Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

After seven decades, the Jasper Fish Hatchery will be retired, and replaced by the new state-of-the-art East Texas Hatchery.

Construction has begun in early July. We’re anticipating the completion will be sometime early 2010.

Todd Engeling is chief of inland hatcheries. The new facility is under construction on 200 acres below Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

About 2000, we did a feasibility study to determine if it whether it was more feasible to renovate the facility where it was at, or to move it to another location. And based on that assessment, we chose to build a new facility in another location.

The East Texas Hatchery will provide at least 45 acres of fish production ponds capable of delivering up to 4.5 million fish annually for stocking in Texas public waters, including….

Primarily a sub species of the large mouthed bass; channel catfish and blue catfish, and bluegill sunfish. Those will be the principle species that it will be raising. It will also have the capability to participate with our striped bass and hybrid striped bass program should it be needed in the future. We think right now, given what pond space we were planning, we should be able to produce four to five million fingerlings a year.

Innovations and environmental efficiencies at the new hatchery…that’s tomorrow.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of the Texas’ state fish hatcheries. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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