ADF&G - Ship Creek Fisheries Center

10/01/2025

📢Ship Creek Fisheries Center Hours and Operations update!

Starting today, October 1, the Ship Creek Visitors Center will be open Monday-Friday 8am-4pm and now CLOSED on the weekends until spring. Self-guided tours are available anytime Monday-Friday 8am-4pm.

Guided tours will be accommodated when staffing is available. Please fill out a request form here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportStockingHatcheryInfo.tours

07/15/2025

Right now is a great time to check out king salmon at the hatchery! Stop on by today and see some salmon and take a free self guided tour of our facility!

06/13/2025

🚁Talk about a journey!

Rainbow trout from the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery made the trek to their new home in Heitman Lake—and they arrived by helicopter!

These fish took a truck ride down from Anchorage to Kodiak, crossed the ocean on the ferry, stopped in at Pillar Creek Hatchery for a quick rest, hopped back in a truck, and then hitched a ride through the sky with the Coast Guard for their final flight into the lake.

All part of ADF&G’s effort to give anglers in remote areas like Kodiak more fishing opportunities. 🎣

05/16/2025

🎣 Want to see where Alaska’s sport fish begin their journey—and how we raise millions of fish to keep our lakes and rivers full for anglers like you?

Come visit the Ship Creek Center at the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery in Anchorage! Our amazing hatchery technician, Laurel, is here to answer your questions and show you how fish like salmon, trout, and Arctic char are raised to support Alaska’s sport fishing opportunities!

Bring your curiosity and stop by for a tour—we’d love to see you!

The facility is open Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:00pm for self-guided tours and Tuesday-Saturday 10:00am-3:00pm for guided tours (inquire here for a guided tour: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportStockingHatcheryInfo.tours)

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01/06/2025

📢Attention anglers: The comment period on the 2025 Statewide Stocking Plan is open now through January 31.

➡In 2025, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game – Division of Sport Fish plans to release about 7 million fish at hundreds of select locations throughout the state.
• Would you like to see fish reallocated from one stocking location to another?
• Do you know of a public lake that is not currently stocked but might be a good candidate for stocking?
• Do you fish lakes that are stocked in Alaska? Let us know your experience (you’ll find contact information on the website below).

➡The comment period on the Statewide Stocking Plan is your opportunity to tell us what you want to see in stocked fisheries.

Only fish reared from the Division’s hatchery facilities and from private non-profit hatcheries that work in cooperation with ADF&G to improve sport fisheries are included in this plan.

🐟The 2025 Statewide Stocking Plan as well as information on how to submit a comment can be found here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportStockingHatcheries.stockingPlan .

12/16/2024

🐟 Take an in-depth look at how staff at the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery in Anchorage conduct a rainbow trout egg take. 🐟

10/30/2024

Like steelhead? Check out this great new video upload on our YouTube channel.

Join Holly Dickson on an explanation of how staff monitor steelhead on the Anchor River in Southcentral Alaska. ...

10/17/2024

🐟Check out how we're using some of the coho we spawned this year to help educate local students!

Link to Salmon Dissection Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QIr0wyWuxM&t=493s

10/03/2024

We made our coho salmon goal!

09/16/2024

🐟🚌The stocking trucks have been busy lately!

Get out and fish your favorite stocked lake. Our exceptional staff from the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery in Anchorage have been out releasing fish into many of the lakes in the Valley as well as a few of the lakes in Anchorage. Anchorage lakes will continue to be stocked into the fall.

Healthy Arctic char and rainbow trout are waiting for you to come cast a line.

Fish on! 🎣

07/16/2024

🚨 Attention Alaskans 🚨

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently issued a positive 90-day finding on a petition to list Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). An ESA listing will replace state management with federal management for any fishery impacting listed Chinook salmon and result in designation of critical habitat. It will also significantly impact subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries, causing serious economic and cultural harm to Alaskans. This action will have far-reaching implications for development projects and other activities beyond fisheries.

Learn why ADF&G opposes an ESA listing for these salmon stocks and how our current management practices ensure for long-term sustainability, here:https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/home/news/hottopics/pdfs/chinook_90_day_finding_public_61824.pdf

07/12/2024

Come on by the Ship Creek Fisheries Center to come take a look at our hatchery raised kings that have returned to spawn just out front with our polarized sunglasses and windows to better see them!!