DNR to shut North Shore hatchery that spawns popular trout

Updated: 4:33 p.m. | Posted: 2 p.m.

Minnesota conservation officials have decided to close a Lake Superior fish hatchery that spawns Kamloops trout, a popular sport fish, and shift production elsewhere.

"Loopers," as local anglers refer to them, are a domesticated strain of rainbow trout the state Department of Natural Resources introduced to Lake Superior in 1976. The fish can grow to five pounds and larger.

The aging facility, however, needs $8 million to fix failing equipment, agency said in a statement Thursday. Each Kamloop an angler keeps costs between $160 and $200 to produce, because of excessive energy consumption at the hatchery that eats up about 10 percent of the DNR's entire statewide energy use.

"In my mind, it's irresponsible to support a program where the fish that are harvested are so expensive," said DNR fisheries chief Don Pereira.

It's so costly because the fish can't reproduce naturally in the lake. The hatchery must first heat Lake Superior's cold water to a temperature at which fish can be raised, a process the DNR says is less expensive elsewhere, where the water it uses isn't nearly as cold as Lake Superior's.

"We remain strongly committed to providing great fishing opportunities in Lake Superior and along the North Shore," added Pereira.

Pereira said the production of Kamloops trout will instead be moved to another hatchery, until "an agreed upon strategy is reached with the Lake Superior Advisory Group, a group of anglers who work with the DNR on Lake Superior issues."

Many anglers argue that Kamloops reared elsewhere will be smaller, more likely to be eaten by predators and less likely to return to streams along the North Shore where they can be caught.

The Duluth-based group Kamloops Advocates argues that fish need to be raised at the French River Hatchery for the best "imprinting" to occur. That's the process through which salmon and similar fish are able to return to the stream where they lived as juveniles before they swam into the ocean, or in this case, into Lake Superior.

The group wants the state to fund upgrades to keep the French River hatchery open. "Legislative intervention with financial support ... should be considered necessary in order to maintain the considerable social and economic benefits that only the (French River hatchery) is capable of providing," the group wrote in a notice posted on its website.

Between 1,000 and 1,200 anglers fish for Kamloops every year, mainly between Duluth and Two Harbors at the mouths of the French and Lester rivers. Only about 4 percent of the 25,000 yearlings stocked every year are caught by anglers.

"But they're trophy rainbow trout," said Ross Pearson with Kamloops Advocates. "It's an experience that is unmatched anywhere in the state by any other trout fishery."

Pereira said the agency will monitor the catch rate of Kamloops reared at a different hatchery and whether the fish are interbreeding with wild steelhead trout. He said those factors will help determine whether the agency continues to stock Kamloops beyond 2017.

"It's going to be very hard to replace the grandeur of fishing along the shores of the largest freshwater lake in the world," he said. "I get that. But we need to be responsible with our programs, and that's what we're striving for here."