This cylinder contains 4000 rainbow trout eggs approaching hatch time.
Having done a quick walk through of several fish hatcheries over the years, I wasn't overly excited about visiting another one. But, it was nearby, we were (mildly) curious, didn't have anything more exciting to do, so off we went. And we were delighted we did.
Recently hatched rainbow trout.
The Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is huge, quite sophisticated, appears to be well managed, and has a knowledgeable staff who did a fine job of explaining the operation.
This is the inside part of the operation, where eggs are hatched. The newly-hatched minnows pictured above are fed every 30 minutes.
The outdoor facility has dozens of tanks, aka raceways, that contain rainbow trout in various sizes. The whole area is covered with chicken wire to keep hungry birds at bay. A huge volume of river water is constantly circulating through the tanks.
Link to more info and pix: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/fisheries/willow_beach/
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