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Hatchery Needs Upgrade

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BY YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: March 22, 2009

PALMETTO - After taking a glancing blow last week from Hillsborough County's environmental land stewards, state biologists continue to troll for a new fish hatchery site.

And they want the new complex built in the Tampa Bay area, where sport fishing is big and habitat restoration takes high priority.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been raising young redfish and releasing them into Tampa Bay since 1988, after high demand for blackened redfish in restaurants and home kitchens nationwide threatened to wipe out the species in some areas.

To date, the hatchery has raised millions of redfish and released them near the mouths of the Alafia and Little Manatee rivers to enhance the breed's population in the wild.

But its location at Port Manatee in Palmetto needs a major upgrade. Instead of refurbishing the hatchery, the commission wants to move it elsewhere and build from scratch as it works to establish a statewide breeding and research network.

The Hillsborough County Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program's general committee agreed March 9 that the Stock Enhancement Research program is commendable, just not meant for conservation lands.

Overseers of the preservation program disapproved of a plan to build a hatchery on ELAPP property, saying such lands are to be used for water recharge, wildlife habitat and wetlands restoration, not for buildings and pavement.

The move prompted the state to consider redesigning its future hatchery to make its physical footprint smaller, said Luiz Barbieri, Florida's marine fisheries research program administrator.

"New technology can help us produce fish without being land hogs and having a negative environmental impact," Barbieri said.

The state is also planning a meeting to get public input.

"Our ultimate goal is to release hatchery fish into Tampa Bay and to improve habitat in places like Terra Ceia," said hatchery director Chris Young. He was referring to Terra Ceia Preserve State Park, just south of the Hillsborough County line.

The conservation commission would like to find a place where staff can work hand-in-hand with other agencies, like the state's Surface Water Improvement and Management program, or SWIM, which pays for and orchestrates much of the coastal restoration work along Tampa Bay's shoreline.

"We need to move from putting fish in the water to including habitat restoration," Barbieri said. "A combined approach would make our program more successful."

Barbieri said a date and time for a public meeting should be announced in a few weeks.

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