OVERVIEW

[ Stockings Completed in 2006-07  | Stockings Planned for 2007]

Between two million and four million fishes were distributed every year to over 100 lakes and half a dozen rivers by technicians of Richloam Fish Hatchery. Each release is done on the premise that it is socially and biologically justified, and better fishing will result.  However, the new Florida Bass Conservation Center (FBCC) that was being constructed on the old site will provide state-of-the-art facilities that will triple production and reduce water usage.

Blessed with good water and soils, Richloam ranks among the most productive fish hatcheries of its size in the United States. It is Florida's principle supplier of hatchery produced fishes to public waters throughout the state. Sport fishes are the species predominately cultivated.

The Florida Bass Conservation Center (FBCC) at Richloam Hatchery celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2004  and was officially dedicated in February 2007.  To learn more about the FBCC, to answer a survey, to make a donation or become a sponsor--click here. 

Physical Attributes And Visitation

Revenues from fishing licenses paid for construction and has funded annual operation. On three occasions, the Legislature appropriated general revenues to build expansions. Richloam's annual budget is about $300,000.00. The farm-gate value of its crops exceeds one-half million dollars per year, and ultimately, the recreational value of stocked fishes is worth 1.75 million dollars per year in the economy by expenditures of fishermen and other water users.

The hatchery is located in Sumter County on the east side of Highway 471 about 11 miles south of Webster. It lies near the center of Richloam Wildlife Management Area, a tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest managed by the Division of Forestry for aquifer and stream recharge, timber production, wildlife conservation, and public recreation.

The hatchery's land area of 186 acres is leased from the DOF. About one-fourth the area consists of preserved cypress swamps. Water oriented birds are abundant and other wildlife frequent the site. The hatchery production area covers 110 acres holding 77 earthen ponds and six buildings. Fish are raised in the earthen ponds, which range in size from 0.1 to 1.5 acres and total 55 acres. Hatchery services are an integral part of numerous regional fisheries programs trying to make our world a better place.

Why Cultivate What Grows Wild?
Largemouth Bass and Bream - to seed new waters.
Largemouth bass is Florida's premier freshwater sportfish. It and other popular sunfishes occur naturally throughout Florida. Stocking where these species already exist would be wasteful. However, in instances where public lakes are either newly constructed or renovated, stocking can be beneficial. Introduction of largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, and perhaps crappie or other species can jump start a fish community that otherwise would take years to develop on its own. Recently acquired muck farm properties that have been reflooded by the water management districts in Lake County are examples where fishing opportunities were initiated after bass and bream were stocked.

A new innovation for raising hatchery grown largemouth bass may benefit many State waters. Biologists have successfully trained largemouth bass to eat commercial chows. Bass' natural instincts are to chase live foods, and they would rather starve than eat something dead. The advantage of teaching them to eat store bought feeds is they can now be raised economically to bigger sizes. These new abilities to culture bigger bass means that vulnerable stages in the juvenile life can be passed at the hatchery, and hardy yearling fish can be placed in lakes to control over-crowded forage species. Turning excess prey into bass' growth will put more bass on the angler's fishing line.

Striped Bass - to prevent extinction of a trophy species.
Physical alterations like dams, channelization, and shoreline deforestation have diminished striped bass' ability to reproduce in affected shortened, slowed, or warmer streams. Hatchery supplementation has bolstered striped bass abundance in their native St. Johns, St. Marys, Ochlockonee and Apalachicola Rivers. Biologists have exercised care each year to ensure that genes of Atlantic and Gulf stocks are not compromised by mixing of stocks. If annual stockings were not practiced, this fine species would very likely disappear from among Florida's fish life. Instead, annual replenishment by hatcheries has kept striped bass numbers at a healthy level, a condition that has allowed fishing and harvest regulations to be quite liberal rather than just a memory.

Sunshine Bass - to make damaged sport fisheries more enjoyable
Sunshine bass are an engineered fish that were designed to counter problems associated with eutrophication. Eutrophication is natural aging that happens to all water bodies but has been exacerbated in many lakes and sluggish streams where storm and sewer drains empty pollutants and fertilizer elements. Species such as shad ordinarily prosper in degraded waters, while game species struggle to survive and ultimately diminish in abundance.

Biologists discovered that hybridization of striped bass and white bass produces a vigorous predator that not only survives, but selectively chooses shad for dinner. That trait leads to a delightful product as the hybrid assimilates the least esteemed fish into a fine asset - themselves. The aggressive hybrid is a thrill on the fishing line and great taste at the next dinner.

Variously, called whipers, swipers, or simply striper hybrids at time, the official common name for the fish with a female striped bass mother and white bass father is "Palmetto Bass," after South Carolina where they were first raised. However, the reciprocal hybrid was first produced in 1973 at Richloam, earning it the official common name of "Sunshine bass" where the mother is a white bass and father a striped bass. Richloam has stayed as the leading producer of sunshine bass ever since.

Channel Catfish - to educate people who lack outdoor experiences and knowledge about the aquatic environment
Florida's human population is growing more urbanized. Lakes near metropolitan areas have experienced greater fish losses due to pollutants and over-harvest by anglers than has happened in rural lakes. Losses have often exceeded reproductive replenishment resulting in reduced abundance and value. Fishing can be frustrating in such areas, and trying to fish at some places is hardly worthwhile. In fact, as peoples' pursuits have adjusted to urban environments, fewer and fewer have experienced their first fishing trip and the number of active anglers has been on the decline.

Richloam provides channel catfish to the Commission's Urban Pond Program. In this program, catchable-sized catfish are placed in small lakes around metropolitan cities to provide a "put-and-take" fishery. Fishing derbies and educational clinics are conducted for children, and sites offer special programs to assist physically challenged clients. Without a doubt, the quality of Florida's future environment will be correlated with the degree of appreciation that its current and future residents hold for natural resources. Hopefully, these clinics and derbies will stimulate children to esteem their resources as being valuable enough to cherish and perpetuate.

Other Species - to research possibilities that might enhance enjoyment of aquatic resources.
Snook, redfish, flathead catfish, and even walleye, including a hybrid with sauger, have been studied at Richloam to find out if introducing them to Florida's freshwaters would be desirable. All except redfish were successfully cultured, but survival in lakes was so poor that experiments were discontinued.

Grass carp, a weed eating fish native to Asia, was brought to Florida as a possible means to control nuisance aquatic weeds. However, this introduction carried some risks. Carp might have reproduced uncontrollably and consumed desirable habitat. The Commission was adamant that only a safe fish would be released into the natural aquatic environment. Surgically removing ovaries and testes was futile because carp regenerate them. Biologists collaborated with worldwide experts to develop a sterile grass carp. New skills were learned that could produce gynogenetic populations (all females), could make non-reproductive hybrids, and best of all, could cause chromosomal changes in pure carp to make them sterile. The result was safe, triploid grass carp which look the same and eat weeds as hungrily as fertile grass carp do. Triploids are advantageous in the sense that their numbers can be controlled. Hence, the amount of aquatic vegetation can be managed with least risk. Richloam was extensively engaged in developments that led to the triploid grass carp, helped develop the Coulter Counter method of verifying their status as triploids for certification purposes, and as the next step, participated in demonstration tests that proved the carp were in fact functionally sterile and worthy of release.

The FBCC provides facilities where associate biologists can conduct research. One closely allied project does experiments and consultation services to assist the private aquacultural industry. The project's impetus is to demonstrate the merits of native organisms. Feasibility studies designed to promote native species as aquacultural crops have involved sunshine bass, crappie, bream hybrids, and crayfish.

How Fish Are Produced?

Richloam Fish Hatchery reached two milestones in 1996. One, the year marked the 30th annual crop of fishes delivered to State waters. Two, Richloam carried its 50 millionth fish and turned it loose. Recent fish production has quadrupled the amounts from earlier years.

Largemouth bass and sunfish reproduce by natural courtships in hatchery ponds. The advantage of growing them at the hatchery is protection against hazards such as predators and diseases. Crowding requires that expert attention be given to assure that nutrition, health, and water quality needs are provided. Hence, technicians analyze water chemistry and review culture practices on a daily basis.

Some species will not spawn in captivity. Biologists inject striped bass, white bass, and grass carp with hormones to induce them to spawn. Eggs are taken from these species by manual stripping and mixed with sperm to achieve fertilization. Their incubation is done in hatching jars that simulate their natural incubation requirements. Baby fry live off the egg yolk for several days while technicians tend them in aquariums. When fry are ready to start eating, they are transferred to hatchery ponds where technicians manage conditions to promote continued growth.

In nature, catfish eggs are bound in a gelatinous glob. Technicians dissolve eggs from this gel so they can be incubated in the same apparatuses used for other species. Carp require an extra step of care too. Their blood is tested by a very sophisticated instrument to verify chromosomal triploidy. Every grass carp delivered from Richloam is certified in such a manner to ensure that only sterile fish are carried to public waters.

[ Stockings Completed in 2003-04  | Stockings Completed in 2004-05  | Stockings Completed in 2005-06 | Stockings Completed in 2006-07 | Stockings Planned for 2007 ]

The following is a summary of earlier (1998-2003) stockings of striped and sunshine bass.