The state of Florida has two freshwater fish hatcheries.
The Florida Bass Conservation Center is in the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve in Sumter County miles away from any city population.
The other is the Blackwater Fisheries Research and Development Center located in the Blackwater River State Forest near Holt.
Florida’s only saltwater hatchery is the Stock Enhancement Research Facility in Port Manatee in an industrial area sandwiched between the Terra Ceia State Park and Tampa Bay Estuarine Ecosystem Rock Ponds.
If you’re wondering how much has been spent on the project so far -Â $607,175.11 according to the latest figures on gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov.
Moose,
I still trying to figure out the project. The information the city has released and is confusing. Gaps are missing.
Thanks, Rick. Well, then there really doesn’t appear to be any justification for it even if the smell isn’t a factor. Thanks for that info!
Moose,
According to the documents presented to the council, the only remediation is removal of construction debris on the site.
Honest question: Does an enclosed/indoor hatchery pose an issue with odor around the structure? It seems like it wouldn’t be a problem unless you’re inside. If there was some example of an enclosed hatchery we could look to which people visited and complained about the odor outside, I would think this would be a legitimate, big problem given we just paid over $300M to remove the sewage treatment plant, primarily for safety, but secondarily because of the hindrance it posed to economic development downtown.
Otherwise, if there is no proof the odor is an issue, then it really is debatable as to whether moving forward with this is a bad idea. The likelihood a private developer is going to pay to remediate that site is very unlikely and our city is already tapped out on the remediation and development of our waterfront park. The proponents of the Maritime Park used the same logic for the private-public partnership to remediate the Trillium property. As with that project, maybe we should use this is a catalyst to get the site ready for private development at a later date.
You know why? They STINK!