Mark Latti / mark.latti@maine.gov
207-287-6008
fax 207-287-6395
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
284 State Street
41 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333

For Immediate Release November 2, 2005

Governor Presides Over Re-opening of Embden Hatchery

EMBDEN, Maine - Standing alongside a 20' stainless steel circular tank, Governor John Baldacci emptied a bucket brimming with brook trout into the new hatchery tank, signifying the reopening the Embden Fish Hatchery.

The day marked the culmination of a 18-month, $3.2 million complete renovation of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Embden Hatchery.

At full capacity, the hatchery can raise 100,000 pounds of any combination of brook trout, landlocked salmon, brown trout, lake trout, rainbow trout, and splake. Last year, the department stocked just over 300,000 pounds of fish. Embden will significantly increase the number of fish the department stocks throughout the state. The old Emden Hatchery raised approximately 25,000 pounds of fish a year.

"This hatchery is an investment in the state's future," said Roland D. Martin, Commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, "Fishing has an enormous economic impact throughout the state. It supports jobs and it generates revenue, and it is an industry poised for growth."

The $3.2 million dollar renovation was financed through a $7 million dollar voter-approved bond in 2002, and it updated the Embden hatchery with the most current fish rearing technology. This new technology and equipment will allow the hatchery to raise more fish, raise bigger fish, and raise them in a shorter period of time.

The new 25,000 square foot building holds 30 round tanks, each 20 feet in diameter and 3 ½ feet deep. They are situated in three rows of ten. Each row is fed by a separately controlled water source that comes directly from two gravity fed intake pipes placed at different depths in Embden pond. By mixing the water from the two different depths, the hatchery can tailor the water temperature to ideal growing temperatures for landlocked salmon, brook trout, brown trout and other fish such as lake trout and even whitefish in the same building.

The round tanks are self-cleaning and feature a better fish-raising environment than the old concrete raceways. Fish are easier to feed, and since they drain through the bottom and out of the hatchery, fish in the tank live in cleaner, more oxygenated water than they did in the old concrete raceways that would feed into each other.

Before entering the hatchery, water is passed through an Ultra Violet light system that kills pathogens, then the water is super-saturated with oxygen, and then mixed to the right temperature and fed into the circular tanks. Wastewater is drawn through a drain in the center of the tank, then through a wastewater filter system before it goes out of the hatchery.

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