New Hampshire Fish and Game on Hatcheries and Stocking
Few if any states in the Northeast are as reliant on and accepting of stocking as New Hampshire. Stocking over wild native fish, brook trout, is not at all unusual, and most popular trout and salmon fisheries are now almost purely manufactured.
While there have been some stocking suspensions recently, they were mostly small streams that received less than 200 fish, and were home to wild native brook trout. And Coos County, home to a high percentage of the states wild native brook trout saw the fewest suspensions.
There have been some rainbow trout stocking suspensions as well, but these are temporary, and due to problems at the hatchery. According to what we were told by NHFG during a recent site visit, as soon as the supply issues are addressed, most of these stockings will be resumed.
“The use of fish culture is vitally needed to achieve satisfactory trout and salmon fisheries in New Hampshire. Without hatcheries, it is estimated trout and salmon populations in New Hampshire waters would be depleted in approximately 3-5 years, due primarily to fishing pressure. This is because the capacity of New Hampshire’s waters for trout production is about 10 pounds per acre, due to the granite substrate material and lack of fertility (some states have waters with more fertility and dissolved minerals capable of producing 300 pounds of trout per acre or greater).”
At the root of the problem is a flawed and self-defeating belief that New Hampshire can’t have wild native trout fisheries. I saw flawed because they are there, you just need to get into the woods to find them. For years NHFG has blamed geology for what is often angler exploitation made worse by stocking.
“[NH Fish and Game Department uses stocking] to ensure that New Hampshire has abundant and varied fish levels that sustain healthy populations [and] to ensure that New Hampshire has fish populations that support desired levels of fishing.”