FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A $45 million state fish hatchery now under construction won't have onsite housing for employees or laboratories for University of Alaska, Fairbanks researchers when it opens next summer.
Sport fisheries director Charlie Swanton told The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that rising costs forced the state to eliminate those components of the project.
The hatchery will produce rainbow trout and Arctic char for Interior lakes.
A bigger, $100 million hatchery being built in Anchorage is set to open in the summer of 2011.
"These are fish production facilities, and that's what we're going to make them," Swanton said.
The new hatcheries will replace the state's two existing facilities at Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson in Anchorage, which have reduced the amount of warm water from power plants available for growing fish.
Stocking levels in lakes around Alaska have dropped between 30 and 50 percent in the past six years, Swanton said.
The Fairbanks hatchery will include a 5,000-gallon aquarium featuring different species of Alaska fish to greet visitors when they walk in, and two glass windows will allow visitors to see what's happening inside.
A sculpture of an arctic grayling will adorn the front of the building.
John Morack of the Fairbanks chapter of Trout Unlimited said his group was not happy that research components of the new hatchery were eliminated.
Swanton said the department was still trying to figure out how it will pay to operate the hatcheries after they are up and running.
The Division of Sport Fish spends about $2.3 million a year to run the hatcheries at Fort Richardson and Elmendorf.
It will cost about $4 million to maintain the two new hatcheries—$2.3 million for the Anchorage hatchery and $1.7 million for the Fairbanks site, Swanton said.
The division was looking for the money internally and doesn't expect a budget increase or to ask the Legislature for funding.
