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Converting a Production Fish Hatchery to a Fisheries Research Center: Lessons Learned from a Six Decade Transition

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/n009w719j

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  • The mission of federal fish hatcheries has evolved over decades under budgetary changes and new conservation regulations and policies. I evaluated the US Fish and Wildlife Service Abernathy Fisheries Technology Center, which has experienced this evolution from a production fish hatchery with research programs to a non-production, cutting edge, basic and applied research station in fisheries nutrition, conservation genetics, physiology, and ecology. After conducting an analysis of the historical record through interviews, observations, and use of archival documents, all pertaining to the bureaucratic transition and current operations, I extracted the following lessons learned: (1) Government agency cultures are unique unto themselves and should be considered by managers as they hire and retain employees through a unit's transition; (2) Moving a bureaucratic unit to a paperless culture potentially has many benefits, but resistance should be expected and planned for; (3) Expect change from external forces as a unit experiences its own transitional changes; (4) Consider establishing an institutional animal care and use committee at a transitioning fisheries research station because it increases research funding opportunities and partnerships; (5) During bureaucratic transition, regular and frequent communication is essential, even in the absence of visible employee push-back; (6) Leadership and staff must be knowledgeable and responsive to changing agency priorities and this is essential for a unit to endure and remain relevant; (7) Managers should not underestimate the importance of providing a nurturing work environment, in part, because in times of rapid change, employees will be asked to move out of their comfort zone; (8) Field units must respond to changed policy and budget priorities or that unit may be phased out. The physical and bureaucratic structures that make up a fish hatchery can persevere through budgetary constrictions and shifts in programmatic missions by shifting to a new management mission, particularly one of a fisheries research station. A hatchery can sustain operations by implementing new research focus areas that bring funding and partnership opportunities, but the transition is not easy.
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  • Derby, Mona E., 2018. Converting a Production Fish Hatchery to a Fisheries Research Center: Lessons Learned from a Six Decade Transition. Final Report for the Professional Science Masters Degree, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 41 p.
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