The Edenton National Fish Hatchery is a fish hatchery administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Edenton, North Carolina, in the United States. It lies on of land and is a component of the National Fish Hatchery System. Like other components of the National Fish Hatchery System, the hatchery's mission is to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats, as well to cooperate with like-minded partners to further these goals. It is the largest producer of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the National Fish Hatchery System.
During its early years, the hatchery produced millions of larval fish which it stocked initially the waterways of North Carolina, later expanding its distribution work to include other U.S. states. Established with the primary purpose of raising American shad (Alosa sapidissima) and soon adding striped bass to its work, the hatchery at various times over its history produced blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), white perch (Morone americana), mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis), and redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus). In the 21st century, the hatchery also became involved in restoration efforts for threatened and endangered species. It released lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) for the first time in 2014, and later began to raise Cape Fear shiners (Notropis mekistocholas). In addition, it began to breed white shiners (Luxilus albeolus) and johnny darters (Etheostoma nigrum) for use by other hatcheries as hosts for the glochidia (parasitic larvae) of endangered species of freshwater mussels. In 2020, the hatchery began breeding gopher frogs (Lithobates capito) as part of a program to restore their population in North Carolina.
Activities Striped bass
The Edenton National Fish Hatchery has raised striped bass since 1906, and over the years has released millions of striped bass into the waters of North Carolina.Butchko, Section 8, p. 41. Although the hatchery formerly released striped bass fry into the wild, it has improved its fish production capabilities so that it now can raise and release older fish. It is the largest producer of striped bass in the National Fish Hatchery System, annually releasing hundreds of thousands of fish into the Neuse River and Tar River, and over a six-year period released over a million six-to-eight-month old fish, the most for fish of that age by any fish hatchery. Anglers have caught tagged striped bass raised at the hatchery in the Atlantic Ocean along the United States East Coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and as far north as Maine.
The Edenton National Fish Hatchery and the government of North Carolina cooperate in a genetic monitoring program for striped bass released from the hatchery. When adults arrive at the hatchery to serve as broodstock, the hatchery's staff collects a small piece of fin from each adult fish. Once broodstock have spawned, the staff collects the eggs, raises the juvenile fish, and releases them into the rivers in North Carolina from which their parents were collected. By comparing the fin samples with the striped bass biologists catch as part of the government of North Carolina's striped bass monitoring program, scientists specializing in genetic testing can determine whether the fish the biologists catch had parents who spawned at hatchery. In this way, scientists can assess the hatchery's contribution of striped bass caught in the rivers of North Carolina or the Atlantic Ocean.
Lake sturgeon
The Edenton National Fish Hatchery stocks the Tennessee River and its tributaries, including the French Broad River in western North Carolina, with lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) it raises as part of the Southeast Lake Sturgeon Working Group, a multiagency restoration program seeking to reestablish the species in the Tennessee River and Cumberland River drainage basins. Lake sturgeon disappeared from North Carolina's waters in the mid-20th century due to overfishing, but the hatchery has released over 30,000 lake sturgeon since beginning the program in 2014, working with the Table Rock State Fish Hatchery to establish the species in North Carolina's waterways for the first time in 50 years. Biologists at the hatchery are studying the possibility of changing the diet of lake sturgeon raised at the hatchery, replacing frozen midge larvae imported from China with other options, such as a sturgeon diet imported from Europe.
Cape Fear shiner
The hatchery raises the endangered Cape Fear shiner (Notropis mekistocholas). Working with the Raleigh Endangered Species Office, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Eastern North Carolina Ecological Services, and North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission (NCWRC), the hatchery's staff brings adult Cape Fear shiners into the hatchery for spawning, then returns the adults and their young to the rivers from which they were collected in their native range in the Cape Fear River drainage basin. With initial help from Conservation Fisheries International, hatchery staff is refining techniques to spawn and grow Cape Fear shiners in captivity for release in the wild. The goal of the program is to create self-sustaining populations of Cape Fear shiners.
White shiner
Although the hatchery does not produce endangered freshwater mussels itself, it raises the white shiner (Luxilus albeolus) in coopertation with the NCWRC and North Carolina State University to support the efforts of other hatcheries to restore mussel populations. The hatchery supplies white shiners it raises to other hatcheries for use as host fish for the glochidia (parasitic larvae) of freshwater mussels, without which the glochidia cannot survive. Raising white shiners in captivity reduces or eliminates the need to collect them from the wild, which has unpredictable results and stresses the fish, making them more susceptible to disease. In 2019, the hatchery distributed its first batch of juvenile white shiners to the Marion Conservation Aquaculture Center, North Carolina State University's Aquatic Epidemiology and Conservation Laboratory, and the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery in Georgia.
Johnny darter At the request of the NCWRC, the Edenton National Fish Hatchery began a pilot program to raise johnny darters (Etheostoma nigrum) for use as host fish for glochidia of the endangered dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon). The Edenton National Fish Hatchery seeks to produce enough healthy johnny darters to support NCWRC and other agencies attempting to restore freshwater mussel populations.
Gopher frog
The Edenton National Fish Hatchery teams with the NCWRC, North Carolina State University's Center for Marine Technology, and the United States Forest Service to restore populations of the gopher frog (Lithobates capito). The hatchery "head starts" gopher frogs for release into the Croatan National Forest, raising them in mesocosms.
Internships The Edenton National Fish Hatchery offers both spring-summer and fall student internships. Interns work 40-hour weeks for two to three months, participating in raising fish and facility maintenance.
Outreach The hatchery's staff takes part in numerous community events and provides educational talks at local schools and libraries. The hatchery hosts an annual public Kids Fishing Derby during National Fishing and Boating Week and other, smaller fishing derbies for children's groups such as the Girls and Boys Club and the 4H Club.
Management The United States Fish and Wildlife Service manages and operates the Edenton National Fish Hatchery. It partners locally with the North Carolina Department of Marine Fisheries, Chowan Edenton Environmental Group, Chowan–Edenton Optimist Club, and North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation.
History Original site The Edenton National Fish Hatchery traces its history to July 7, 1898, when the United States Congress authorized the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, widely referred to as the United States Fish Commission, to construct Edenton Station as a component of the National Fish Hatchery System.Butchko, Section 8, p. 36. On February 18, 1899, the United States Government purchased a parcel of land on a peninsula on the southwest bank of the mouth of Pembroke Creek just west of Edenton, North Carolina, as the site for the new hatchery.Butchko, Section 7, p. 2; Section 8, p. 36. The hatchery's initial purpose was to raise American shad (Alosa sapidissima), whose populations had declined during the 19th century due to overfishing, and its location was near the principal American shad spawning grounds in North Carolina.Butchko, Section 8, p. 37. Construction of the hatchery's first six buildings began in 1899,Butchko, Section 8, p. 38. and its most impressive building, the superintendent's house, was constructed along with additional buildings in 1900.Butchko, Section 8, p. 39.
Edenton Station opened in 1900 as the 35th facility in the National Fish Hatchery System and the only one on the coast of the southeastern United States. Its opening allowed the U.S. Fish Commission steamship , a floating fish hatchery which had visited the North Carolina coast each spring since 1881 to hatch and release American shad, to cease her visits after a final stint in North Carolina's waters during the 1900 season. The new hatchery began production in 1900 when its staff gathered 10,404,000 American shad eggs from commercial fishermen in Albemarle Sound between April 25 and May 10 and incubated them in the hatchery building, resulting in the release of 6,599,000 American shad fry into local waters. In 1901, the Edenton hatchery collected 75 million American shad and succeeded in hatching over 51 million American shad. Over the next 20 years, the hatchery averaged 43.6 million American shad eggs collected and 29.9 million American shad hatched per year, with a high of 115 million collected and 95 million hatched in 1913 and a low of 4.2 million collected and 2.8 million hatched in 1918.Butchko, Section 8, pp. 39–40. In the first decades of the 20th century, it was one of only four national fish hatcheries to raise American shad.Butchko, Section 8, p. 40.
In 1903, the Fish Commission was reorganized and renamed the United States Bureau of Fisheries, a component of the new United States Department of Commerce and Labor.Circular 97, p. 5. Under the Bureau of Fisheries, the hatchery began to experiment around 1906 with raising bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans), necessitating the construction of its first fish ponds. In 1906, the hatchery's staff began to produce striped bass (Morone saxatilis) at a nearby facility on the Roanoke River owned by the North Carolina Division of Inland Fisheries which served as a substation for the Edenton hatchery. Edenton Station continued to produce striped bass at its Roanoke River substation until 1923, when the Government of North Carolina deemed the Roanoke River too polluted for the survival of striped bass fry. After North Carolina constructed a new facility at Weldon, the Edenbton hatchery resumed production of striped bass at the Weldon substation in 1928. Striped bass work stopped again in 1932, but resumed in 1937 and continued until 1954. Annual production of striped bass varied greatly, from a high one year of 40 million eggs collected and 35 million hatched, to years in which fewer than two million striped bass hatched.