page_title: Fish stocking
section_title: Stocking today
hierarchical_section_title: Fish stocking / Stocking today
caption_attribution_description: English: Flow chart illustrating costs and benefits of fish stocking
context_page_description: Fish stocking is the practice of raising fish in a hatchery and releasing them into a river, lake, or ocean to supplement existing populations or to create a population where none exists. Stocking may be done for the benefit of commercial, recreational, or tribal fishing, but may also be done to restore or increase a population of threatened or endangered fish in a body of water closed to fishing.
  Fish stocking may be conducted by governmental agencies in public waters, or by private groups in private waters. When in public waters, fish stocking creates a common-pool resource which is rivalrous in nature but non-excludable. Thus, on public grounds, all can enjoy the benefits of fishing so long as fish continue to be stocked.
context_section_description: Today, much more thought is put into introducing non-native species as they can severely damage the populations of fragile natives; practices lean more towards sustainability. Stocking is used to restore native species to waters where they have been overfished or can no longer breed. "Give and take" stocking practices are those where fish are stocked only to be fished and then restocked. In response, most states have adopted regulations that prohibit fish stocking in areas that may damage aquatic life or ecosystem diversity, and encourage stocking in bodies of water where no harm will result from doing so. Trout Unlimited has a policy, for example, that states "where a body of scientific evidence shows that stocking in historically non-salmonid waters adversely affects native biodiversity, such stocking should cease." While many organizations remain focused solely on providing quality fishing opportunities, policies and attitudes are shifting toward resource integrity and protection.
  In Pennsylvania alone, the PA Fish & Boat Commission is scheduled to stock 4,398,227 trout (brook, brown, and rainbows) into its streams and lakes in 2019. Also in 2019, Lake Ontario, one of the five great lakes, is projected to receive 2,767,660 stocked salmon and trout. According to data by state agencies, in 2004 roughly 1.7 billion fish were stocked across the United States. With 104 different species of fish stocked, a total of 43.65 million pounds of fish were released, primarily in the Western states. In the US, common species that are currently stocked for sport include trout, bass, salmon, muskellunge, walleye, and several species of panfish.
  Before being released into rivers, lakes, ponds, and occasionally oceans across the country, fish are raised in a fish hatchery. Just like humans have a demand for groceries, anglers have a demand for fish. When the supply is running low in a given body of water, fish are transported from hatcheries in a large water tank or airplane to their respective locations. The costs associated with stocking are typically covered by angler associations, commercial fishermen, state fish and game agencies, and at times government subsidies; today, most stocking is conducted by state fish and game departments.
caption: Costs and benefits of fish stocking
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