State kicks off $3 million fundraising campaign for Waubay fish hatchery upgrades

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden appeared Tuesday in Watertown to launch a $3 million fundraising campaign for upgrades to an eastern South Dakota fish hatchery.

Blue Dog State Fish Hatchery in nearby Waubay supplies walleye, yellow perch and muskellunge to urban, community and rural lakes and ponds across the state. It’s the state’s primary producer of walleye.

Federal funding will cover $3.5 million for upgrades to Blue Dog, where most of the infrastructure is more than 40 years old. License fees and fundraising will pay the remainder of the $8 million projected cost, with a goal of $3 million in private donations.

“The more we raise, the faster we can complete the project and the lower the total cost will be,” said Nick Harrington, spokesman for the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

The Blue Dog upgrades will include the installation of 15 recirculating aquaculture systems, each consisting of multiple indoor water tanks, and an additional building to hold them. The project also includes piping for a fourth well to serve the hatchery, a new water filtration system to deal with high levels of iron in the area’s well water, an additional structure and a liquid oxygen system. 

Game, Fish and Parks Wildlife Director Tom Kirschenmann told lawmakers on the Legislature’s budget-setting committee that the upgrades will allow for the production of more and larger fish.

“We would have the ability to produce a 10-inch largemouth bass and put it in a pond for somebody to catch,” Kirschenmann told the committee in late January.

Rhoden’s kickoff event took place at Forsberg city pond in Watertown, one of the community ponds stocked by the state.

The state has two other hatcheries, McNenny State Fish Hatchery in Spearfish and Cleghorn Springs Fish Hatchery in Rapid City. Both sites have undergone renovations in recent years. Blue Dog was built in 1982. The project represents the first modernization overhaul in its 44-year history.

More information on the project is available on the Game, Fish and Parks website.