The Green Lake National Fish Hatchery is open every day from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM, except for major holidays. We offer a self-guided tour at any time and, with advance notice, for large groups, a staff member will be available to you.
Green Lake National Fish Hatchery is a large scale, cold water, hatchery located in Ellsworth, Maine as part of the Maine Fisheries Complex located in Orland, Maine. Green Lake NFH was built in three phases with original construction in 1973, a second phase of construction in 1976, and addition of the water treatment plant in 1978.
The Hatchery is part of the USFWS Atlantic salmon recovery program for Gulf of Maine Rivers. The primary mission at Green Lake NFH is to provide smolts and parr for these rivers. Currently fish are released into the Penobscot River basin (ME), Narraguagus River basin (ME), and the Pleasant River basin (ME). Green Lake NFH releases 650,000 yearling Atlantic salmon smolts and 350,000 fall parr each year. Fish production at GLNFH has been relatively consistent since operation began in 1974. However, the mission at the Hatchery may change with the addition of more river-specific, endangered Atlantic salmon smolts reared at the station.
The Green Lake National Fish Hatchery is open every day from [spp-timestamp time="8:00"] AM until [spp-timestamp time="4:00"] PM, except for major holidays. We offer a self-guided tour at any time and, with advance notice, for large groups, a staff member will be available to you.
