Welcome to the Hatchery!
The Allegheny National Fish Hatchery was established by Congress in 1959; and construction began in the late 1960s. Fish production began on site in 1974. Originally established to produce rainbow, brook, and brown trout for northwestern Pennsylvania streams, the current goal of the facility is to produce lake trout for restoration in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Allegheny National Fish Hatchery is the only U.S. hatchery tasked with producing fish for the bi-national effort.
Annually producing as many as 1.3 million fish in the early 1990s, the hatchery now produces an estimated 660,000 fish to share between the two lakes; and maintains a broodstock population of approximately 2000 fish. Broodstock are used to produce eggs for the Erie and Ontario programs, as well as produce eggs for Lake Michigan.
Please enter our site to learn more about this important program.
Be Inspired: Join us as we restore the Great Lakes
Please enjoy the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's video salute to the work of our staff and our partners.
Together we can and will protect the Great Lakes for current and future generations.
All images by FWS unless otherwise noted