A New Year.

​Its time for a hatchery update folks as its been a while since the last one, November 23 actually and a lot has happened. Firstly we have received a generous donation to help our finances from the hutholders association of the South Rangitata hut holders group. Many thanks to you all for your support.
The trap went in later in January but there seems to be a general lack of returning fish to the hatchery at least in the early part of the year. Consider this however, we were only able to release 4000 fish in 2022 (1 year old at this point) as this release corresponded with one of the poorest returning years 2 years previous. If only 1% of these return to the river mouth, then that’s not many fish returning  where they then have to negotiate the seals, predatory fish, seabirds and anglers. In fact my opinion is that we won’t see many hatchery returnees this year.
The new (preloved) van is bedding in well and is a joy to ride in compared to what we have had. Father Xmas arrived in it one day in December much to the enjoyment of young Benson, John’s Grandson. We have fin clipped around 6,500 fish in February and these have been released back to the river using the Fish and Game fish transporter.
Things are ticking over quietly and we still have a good number of core helpers to keep the show operating day to day. Our biggest cost is fish food and at nearly $7,000 per tonne, we are mindful that this is our limiting factor both in our ability to raise funds and in the number of fish we can release.

Loading the transporter

Putting fish back, 6500 approx.

Feeding the inner Man, (and Woman)