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Our Native Species Inc.
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S.O.N.S Fish Hatchery In 1885 the Pennsylvania Commission obtained a legislative appropriation to build a fish hatchery in Erie, Pennsylvania. The hatchery was located at West 2nd and Sassafras St. This hatchery produced fish until 1914 when a larger facility was constructed on the Erie Waterworks property at the foot of Chestnut St. in Erie. It was closed in the early 1960's. During its' operation this facility hatched millions of eggs from Lake Erie native fish. Most of these fish were placed back into the lake while others were traded with other states for other eggs. The SONS have always felt that closing the Erie hatchery was a major blow to the Lake Erie fishery and decided that it was time to restore a hatchery in Erie. In 1985 thanks to the efforts of Rep. Bernard Dombrowski two grants were obtained from the Pennsylvania State legislature to the Erie Western Pennsylvania Port Authority a new hatchery was to be built and operated by the SONS. The SONS joined the Cooperative Nursery program sponsored by the PFBC and initially established a hatching facility in a 50' trailer on the Water Department property at the foot of Chestnut. This facility was affectionately called Walleye on Wheels by the SONS members. 700,000 walleye eggs were obtained from the PFBC Linesville, PA facility and were successfully hatched and stocked in Presque Isle Bay. The following year a new hatchery building was constructed on the northwest corner of the Water Dept. Property. Since1985 the SONS hatchery has produced over 20 million walleye,15 million perch and about 1 million steelhead.
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