Overview of the U.S. Trout Industry (PDF; 690 KB)
Source: National Agricultural Statistics Service

The trout industry in the United States traces its roots back to the mid 1800’s. America’s westward expansion created more demand on local fish populations. The development of an artificial spawning system for rearing of eggs into fry was a major achievement for the industry. This revolutionized the trout industry in the U.S. by allowing hatcheries to raise far higher numbers of young fish, which would be stocked into rivers, lakes and ponds.

Several species of trout are raised in U.S. farms, but the majority of trout grown in U.S. farms are rainbow trout. Brown trout, lake trout, and steelhead, which is the ocean-going variety of the rainbow trout, are also found in the U.S. Many people across the country enjoy both the food and recreational opportunities that U.S. trout farmers provide.

No two trout farms are exactly alike. Each one is specialized to meet a different public need. Fee-fishing operations are set up to provide the public with the opportunity to harvest their own fish. State, Federal and Tribal hatcheries raise trout to be released back into streams and lakes. Commercial trout farms raise the fish that ultimately make it into restaurants across the country. Trout can be raised in open ponds, circular tanks, and straight raceways or in floating fish cages.

Intensive trout production begins with quality brood stock. Eggs from carefully selected adult females are harvested and fertilized by male fish shortly after. Eggs are transferred into special troughs designed to accommodate their incubation and hatching. Once hatched, trout fry still depend on their yolk sack for nourishment. After the yolk sac has been absorbed the young fish will begin to look for its own food. This is usually the stage where they will be transferred to another tank designed for raising these small fry. Fry are grown into fingerling fish and then ultimately food size with each new life cycle requiring different space and feeding needs. Trout farmers take the utmost care in making sure that the needs of their fish are being met. Chemicals, oxygenation, water temperature, susceptibility to predators and protection from disease are all carefully monitored to ensure the health of the fish.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 1:14 am and is filed under Business and economics, Food and agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.