Public fish hatcheries have a long history in North America, with many culture methods and innovations used in today’s commercial aquaculture industry, first developed at public fish hatcheries. This includes water reuse. While water reuse was initially very basic, as the understanding of fish biology and water quality increased, so did the ways in which water was treated for reuse. Some of the first water reuse systems that included a biofilter and oxygenation, were built at public fish hatcheries. These basic recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) were predecessors to the intensive RAS used in today’s commercial operations.

There are a good number of water reuse systems and intensive RAS at public fish hatcheries today, but few public fish hatchery programs have adopted intensive RAS like the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. During this episode of RAS Talk, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Jeff Milton, Sport Fish Hatchery program supervisor, and Travis Hyer, Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery manager, give us some insight on how their public hatcheries have successfully moved toward RAS.