Feather River Fish Hatchery, Oroville CA

Category & Type :

Activities

Location :

5 Table Mountain Blvd. , Oroville CA

Phone :

530-534-2222

Information about Feather River Fish Hatchery...

Feather River Fish Hatchery Facility
At the base of the fish barrier dam, salmon and steelhead enter and climb the ladder to the hatchery gathering tank. During their spawning runs, the fish can be seen through special view
Feather River Hatchery was designed as a compact unit where a large number of adult fish can be held and artificially spawned. With the hatchery's modern facilities, young fish are reared with a minimum of handling and cost.

Major features to guide the fish from the Feather River to the hatchery include the fish barrier dam and fish ladder. Near the barrier dam, viewing windows allow visitors to watch the fish as they leap and swim up the ladder.

Adult salmon and steelhead remain in sorting and holding tanks, while rearing raceways, located behind the spawning building, contain young fish fingerlings and yearlings. Wire coverings to keep birds from feasting on the young fish protect these rearing areas.

Barrier Dam and Fish Ladder

When salmon and steelhead trout reach spawning age, and conditions are right, they naturally want to go upstream to spawn. The barrier dam stretching across the river means the only way upstream is up the fish ladder.

Feather River Fish Hatchery History

Since construction of Oroville Dam by the Department of Water Resources altered the Feather River, some spawning and nursery grounds were lost to salmon and steelhead returning to their home stream to deposit eggs. To compensate for this loss, the Feather River Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery was opened in 1967.

The facility - one of the most advanced and successful fish hatcheries in California to date - was cooperatively planned by the Department of Fish and Game and the Department of Water Resources, with the advice of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies. In a ten-year period (from 1981 to 1991), the return of spawning adult salmon increased from an average of 39,000 to an average of 51,000 per year. (The run now includes in-river and hatchery spawners.)
windows as they climb the fish ladder to reach the hatchery. Spring-run king salmon begin arriving in June, while steelhead and fall-run salmon arrive from September through November. Eggs are taken from the fish and fertilized, incubated and hatched. The small fish, called fry, are transferred to rearing tanks where they are kept until large enough to put into the river. From the river, they move to the ocean, and then later migrate back to their birth waters.