Hatchery Nutrition: Feeding Fish for Tomorrow’s Changing World

Whether it is to enhance sport and commercial fisheries or restore native populations, propagated fish are used as a management tool by our state, federal, and tribal agencies.  Over 1.7 billion fish weighing more than 40 million pounds are released into our nation’s waters every year.  Compared to historical estimates from the 1930’s, these numbers represent a seven-fold reduction in total number, but 10-fold increase in total weight of fish cultured specifically for stocking.

Most of the 100+ stocked fish species, subspecies, and hybrids lack established nutrient requirements.  However, to achieve production goals, our nation’s hatcheries must have access to high-quality feeds that meet the anticipated nutritional demands of their respective taxa.  Without these high quality feeds, hatcheries cannot produce.  Therefore, research is continually ongoing to identify sustainable feed formulations to ensure economically- and environmentally- friendly fish production in our ever-changing world.

In accordance with the meeting’s theme, this symposium will highlight advances in sustainable hatchery nutrition intended to meet demands placed on our nation’s hatcheries for “Tomorrow’s Changing World”.  Our purpose for this session is to share the latest advancements in fish feeding, nutrition, and sustainable production.  Topics of interest include species-specific diets, feeding strategies, feed training techniques, alternative feed ingredients, and any other approach used to maximize healthy fish performance in the public sector.