The Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute is participating in a breed and release program for the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout.
The brook trout’s natural habitat has been greatly reduced, thus the population of this fish has dwindled. The Institute is working to capture adults, breed them, and release the offspring into the rivers to increase the population of this species.
The Conservation Institute teamed up with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service to capture adult trout in the spring and bred the fish in the laboratory at the Tennessee Aquarium. The baby brook trout were carefully raised, tagged with a magnetic chip and released back to the waterways in the fall. If successful, these programs will help expand this native trout in the rivers and streams of Tennessee.
