page_title: Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center
section_title: Spawning
hierarchical_section_title: Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center / Spawning
caption_attribution_description: English: Dexter National Fish Hatchery &amp; Technology Center, Dexter, New Mexico - Recording length and weight before spawning Colorado pikeminnow
context_page_description: The Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facility dedicated to fish culture techniques for threatened and endangered fishes of the American Southwest. Located in Dexter, New Mexico, it is the only federal facility in the nation dedicated to studying and holding only threatened and endangered fish. Scientists at the Dexter facility perform life history studies and carefully analyze fish genetics while maintaining a refuge for 16 imperiled fish species.
  Dexter National Fish Hatchery was established in 1931, to satisfy demands for game fish throughout the Southwest. New laws brought changes to the hatchery in the 1970s.
context_section_description: Traditionally, the spawning season at the Dexter National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center starts in March and ends in mid-June. The techniques the Center employs are induced spawning and natural spawning. Seventeen different species on the endangered and threatened list are spawned at the Center.
  Broodfish from these species are purposely reared at the Center for spawning. Each year the Center will spawn over 350 pairs of the broodfish using the induced spawning method. These pairs will produce over 3.5 million eggs. This count does not include those that will spawn naturally in the earthen ponds. Fish from each spawn will be taken and held at the station for future broodstock, ensuring genetic diversity. Different pairs of each species are spawned each year, discouraging spawning of the same fish year after year.
  The success the Center has experienced in spawning is evident in its distribution of the species into their natural habitat. Without this type of intervention the chances of these species being extinct would almost be certain.
caption: Recording length and weight before spawning Colorado pikeminnow
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