Carlsbad, CA, White Seabass Hatchery Tour

[Sea Hag]

Volunteers from the White Seabass Outgrow Facilities up and down the Southern California Coast were invited this past weekend to come for a special tour of the hatchery in Carlsbad.

Upon arrival at the facility, we were greeted by United Anglers, for a wonderful BBQ lunch on the patio.

After lunch, a small group of us gathered outside the main door of the hatchery, where United Anglers President Tom Raftican introduced us to our tour guide, Mike Gafford, Director of Operations at the Carlsbad facility.

Stepping into the facility, and at every transition from one area to another, were footbath pans of disinfectant that we had to step through, to prevent bringing any contaminants in from the outside in, or transferring anything from one section to another. The building was a dark labyrinth of tanks and tubes.

Mike started us out in front of a large map of the state, explaining from the hatchery’s beginnings, how studies had show a dramatic decline in numbers of sport-caught WSB from a high of 55,000 in the early ‘50s, down to less than 3500 in the late 60’s, and barely in the hundreds through the mid-70’s into the ‘90’s.

So, in 1982, thanks to state legislation and private donations, the Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatcher Program (OREHP) was launched. Managed by California Fish and Game, and operated by the Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute, the facility is funded primarily by funds collected as part of the Ocean Resources Enhancement stamp you buy as part of your annual fishing license. No other Federal or State tax revenues are used to fund this program.

From there, our real tour started in a small room with tall skinny tanks where brine shrimp (aka “Sea Monkeys”) are hatched. These tiny creatures are used as food for the baby seabass after they have first hatched.

Four huge tanks each hold 25 male and 25 female WSB, that are the brood stock. And these are BIG fish… averaging between 40 and 60 pounds! Each of the four tanks is set to it’s own spawn cycle, using variations of temperature and duration of daylight, to force one tank to spawn approximately every three months. When the water temperature is raised to approximately 66 degrees, and the fish enjoy 14 hours of light a day, it forces the fish into a spawn cycle, and the fish produce and fertilize a brood of eggs.

The eggs are collected and moved to incubators, where they hatch in two days. The hatchlings live off an egg sack for about two days, and once that is absorbed, they are ready for a real meal! This is where the brine shrimp come in. For another 15 days, the tiny hatchlings are kept in the incubators to dine on the shrimp.

From there they are moved to larger swimming pool sized tanks, where they start on a diet of specially formulated pellet food. The size of the pellets increases as the fish grow. The fish are raised here until they get to a length of about 3 inches.

Before they leave the facility, each and every fish is tagged by hand with a small Decimal Coded Wire Tag. At the facility, a new tagging station is being built to streamline this process. The fish will be transferred from their pools to the tagging facility, where a series of troughs will move them into an anesthetic to put them temporarily to sleep, down another trough where a volunteer will carefully lift the tiny fish and implant the small wire chip into their cheek, and back into another trough to send them back to their tank. The anesthetic puts them out for less than a minute, and they’re good to go.



Inside the yellow circle above is a small gray dot.... this is the actual tag that is inserted into each of the small fish before they leave the hatchery! It shows up on a scanner, and the tags are removed, the numbers enscribed on them are read, and that tells researchers where the fish were released and when they were hatched!

From there they are transferred by tank trucks to the outgrow facilities up and down the California coast, where the small fish continue on their pellet diet, and are cared for and fed by a huge crew of volunteers, like Kenny and me! When the fish reach a length of 10-12 inches, they are released into the open ocean!

In October 2004, OREHP released its one millionth white seabass, and is currently releasing more than a quarter of a million fish each year. Adult fish have been recovered up to 12 years after release and as much as 140 miles away from their release site.

At the end of the tour, Mike made a point of recognizing the contributions to the program by all of the volunteers who help raise the fish to the size that they can be successfully released.

However, what the program needs MOST from the public, is for everyone to make sure the heads of any white seabass they catch are collected and given to a seabass head collection site. If you do not have access to one of these facilities, they ask that you put the heads in your freezer, and call the research institute. They will make arrangements somehow to get those heads retrieved.

It is vital in assessing the success of this program for them to collect and check as many heads as possible. Its also worth noting that if you want the stones out of the heads, they can make arrangements to get you replacement stones, and although they won’t be the stones from YOUR fish, you’ll know you’ve done your part for this vital program!

For more information visit Hubbs-Seaworld on-line at www.hswri.org. Tours are available by request only. They are unable to accommodate walk-ins. Visitors must make prior arrangements by contacting Karen McClune at 760-434-9501 or kmcclune@hswri.org.