Published: April 26, 2009 12:26 am      

Trout stocking costs $12.4M, study finds

CHAMPION — Results from a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocked trout cost study show that the agency spends approximately $2.17 to produce an average adult trout, an amount less than that charged by commercial trout hatcheries.

The commission spends about $12.4 million per year to provide more than 6 million of the popular game fish, including fingerlings and adults.

“This is the first time we’ve undertaken a comprehensive examination of all the costs associated with our trout program,” said Doug Austen, the commission’s executive director. “This includes examining the expenditures from all bureaus as they relate to the trout program, such as engineering, law enforcement and fisheries management, and factoring in indirect costs like accounting and human resources.”

Staff made their presentation to commissioners during a Fisheries Committee meeting at the agency’s quarterly meeting, held Monday and Tuesday at Seven Springs Mountain Resort.

Austen said that the trout program production costs are competitive with retail prices at commercial hatcheries. The average price of similar sized adult trout from three Pennsylvania commercial trout farms was $2.57, compared to the PFBC cost of $2.17. The PFBC’s overall cost to produce, stock and manage an average adult trout is $2.73.

Austen noted that this price includes delivery costs and other management costs the PFBC included in its analysis, such as habitat improvement efforts, environmental permit reviews and creel surveys.

Each season the Commission raises about 3.5 million 11-inch adult trout for stocking, 2 million to 4 million fingerlings for the put-grow-take fishery, and 1.2 million fingerlings for cooperative nurseries. It also raises about 20,000 trophy trout consisting of 2-3-year-old brood stock and 9,000 trophy golden rainbow trout. About $9.3 million (77 percent) of the total costs are spent on the adult trout portion of the program.