PENN TOWNSHIP, Cumberland County - There are 3.2 million adult trout stocked annually in Pennsylvania's waterways thanks to trout spawning, a fertilization process that helps maintain the trout stock in the state's waterways.
Officials from Pennsylvania's Fish and Boat Commission's Huntsdale State Fish Hatchery collects millions of eggs from rainbow, brown, and brook trout at its hatcheries. This season they are spawning brown trouts.
"We'll take the female fish and strip her of eggs into a bucket and we'll do the same with a male," says Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission staff member DJ Beckey. "We'll squeeze him and he will let go of his gout, and mix it all together here and we'll have a fertilized egg."
They say without this process there would not be any trout in waterways.
Once the female is stripped of her eggs they are taken to a hatch house where they begin to grow into adult fish.
Hatchery Manager Andrew Wagner say "They'll stay in these tanks for a couple months inside the hatch house. They need to be taken outside and the whole process begins again."
Once fish reach 18 months they are released into Pennsylvania's waterways and ready for anglers.