U.S.

Fish & Wildlife Service

Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery
The hatchery is located in Arizona on
the banks of the Colorado River. It is 11
miles downriver from the Hoover Dam
and within the Lake Mead National
Recreation Area, National Park Service.
History
Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery
(WB) was established in 1962 to take
advantage of the cold water released by
Hoover Dam operations.
The changing role of fish hatcheries in
the United States has included the
modification of sport fishery facilities for
rearing threatened and endangered
fishes. WB was among the first to do
this starting in 1973. Existing raceways
and other hatchery culture facilities have
been modified to provide warm
recirculating water for several
threatened and endangered species.
Raceway modifications include the use
of recirculated, solar-heated water,
biological filtration and ultraviolet
sterilization.
Within the last decade, the hatchery has
been very active developing and
producing technology for native and
endangered fish.
Programs
WB historically raised 150,000
rainbow trout annually in support
of the States recreational fishing.
The hatchery stocked 12,000
twelve inch rainbow trout each
month, year round. These trout
support the angler-oriented
recreation for the approximately
1.5 million people who live within
a 100 mile radius of Willow
Beach.
The hatchery also works with
several tribes for stocking trout

and endangered into tribal

waters, (Colorado River Indian
Tribes, Fort Yuma Indian
Reservation and Fort Mohave
Indian Reservation).
WB produces over 9,000
endangered razorback suckers to
a minimum size of 300mm
annually for stocking. In addition,
4 year classes of razorbacks are
on station at various stages of
growth totaling 60,000 fish.
WB operates a satellite facility,
Achii Hanyo Native Fish Rearing
Facility, located on the Colorado
River Indian Tribe lands where
endangered bonytail chub are
reared. WB produces over 4,000
bonytail chub to a minimum size
of 300mm annually. In addition,
2-3 year classes of bonytail chub
are in various life stages of
growth totaling more than 20,000
fish on station.
WB grows Relict Leopard frog
tadpoles to morph stage for the
Relict Leopard Frog Team. The
newly morphed frogs are used to
populate translocation sites. Up
to 300 frogs are morphed
annually.

Partners
Bureau of Reclamation
National Park Service
State of Arizona
State of Nevada
State of California
Multi Species Conservation Plan Agencies
Relict Leopard Frog Team
Colorado River Indian Tribe
Fort Mohave Indian Tribe
Fort Yuma Indian tribe

25808 N Willow Beach Rd

Box 17
Willow Beach, AZ 86445
928-767-3456
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/fisheries/willow_beach/