16 December, 1988
Dr. Harvey Shear
Dear Harvey:
I hope the following meets your needs for information on Great Lakes fish stocking: "It is estimated that in the years 1958 - 1988 more than 600 million salmon and trout have been stocked in the Great Lakes by the states, the province, and the USFWS. The estimated total production and stocking costs was more than $136 million in 1988 U.S. dollars. This figure is for operations and maintenance only and does not include related administration and capital expenditures which would at least double the estimated cost."
Because of the difficulty in breaking out Great Lakes stocked fish from those stocked inland, in comparing U.S./Canadian and 1960's/1980's dollars, and in sorting out administrative/capital/management/research costs, I calculated the total cost by multiplying fish stocked by average cost of rearing, both figures extrapolated to 1988. The figure is conservative because our stocking records do not include all early salmonid stockings, because it was undoubtedly more expensive to rear fish in the past, and because little or no overhead is accounted for in the cost figures.
I have appended my calculations (Tables 1-3) for your review.Yours Truly,
Margaret Dochoda
Fishery Biologist
TABLE 1. Estimated total operating in 1988 U.S. dollars for salmonids stocked in the Great Lakes, 1958 -1988.
Species Thousands Extrapolated Average cost Total costs
stocked Time Period through 1988* per thousand through 1988
Lake trout 148,102 1958 - 1984 183,114 $318 $58,230,252
Coho 89,794 1966 - 1984 113,310 220 24,928,200
Chinook salmon 124,568 1967 - 1984 191,120 64 12,231,680
Rainbow trout 44,711 1975 - 1984 68,079 338 23,010,702
Brown trout 24,426 1975 - 1984 37,926 409 15,511,734
Brook trout 3,790 1976 - 1984 3,790 530 2,008,700
Atlantic salmon 473 1972 - 1984 621 551 342,171
Total 436.2 million $136,263,439
* In 1984, 8,753 thousand lake trout, 5,879 thousand coho salmon, 16,638 thousand chinook salmon, 5,842 thousand rainbow trout (includes steelhead), 3,375 thousand brown trout, 310 thousand brook trout, and 37 thousand Atlantic salmon were stocked. These numbers were used for each of 1985 1988.
TABLE 2: Annual operating, production, and stocking costs per thousand salmonids reared by Great Lakes jurisdictions. Figures do not include related administration, research, management, and capital costs.
Michigan DNR New York DEC USFWS Ontario MNR Wisc. DNR Ave. 1988 cost
U.S./thousand
Species 1987 1988* 1985 1988* 1988 1986 1988* 1988*
Lake trout 218 229 217 252 245 - - 546 318
Splake 368 386 - - - - - 1,900 1,143
Coho 315 331 104 121 - - - 207 220
Chinook 42 44 106 123 - - - 24 64
Rainbow tr 408 428 256 297 - - - 289 339
Steelhead 748 785 103 119 - - - - 452
Brown tr 304 319 484 561 - - - 348 409
Brook tr 335 352 570 661 - - - 578 530
Atlantic sal 585 614 420 487 - - - - 551
Average fish 369 388 283 328 - 430 403 556 447
* An annual increase of 5% was used to extrapolate to 1988 costs. Canadian funds were converted
to approximate u.s. dollars by multiplying by .85.
TABLE 3: Annual operating, production, and stocking costs per pound of salmonids reared by Great Lakes
jurisdictions. Figures do not include related administration, research, management, and capital costs.
(These numbers were not used in calculating hatchery costs, and are provided for interest's sake only.)
Michigan 1987 New York 1985 Wisconsin 1988
Species cost per pound cost per pound cost per pound
Lake trout $3.27 $3.35 $6.55
Splake 3.68 - 9.69
Coho 4.73 2.37 3.04
Chinook 4.16 16.26 3.99
Rainbow trout 4.08 1.38 2.08
Steelhead trout 5.98 2.17 -
Brown trout 3.04 1.91 1.91
Brook trout 3.35 3.80 2.95
Atlantic salmon 4.68 9.20 -