New hatchery named for military pioneer

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jack Sanders
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON --  Like many military organizations here, the Elmendorf and Fort Richardson Fish Hatcheries are working to join their assets within a new facility, which is being named for William Jack Hernandez, the Soldier who began the program in the 1950s.

The hatcheries are not military owned or operated. They are run by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Mr. Hernandez started his career in a unique way. At 21 years old, Mr. Hernandez was a civilian construction worker on Wake Island. Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack he and other civilian employees were assigned to the Marine detachment defending the Island.
On Dec. 23, 1941, Wake Island was captured and Mr. Hernandez and other civilians were imprisoned in various Japanese Prisoner of War camps in China.

After the war, Mr. Hernandez returned to his home town of Los Angeles where he enlisted in the Army in 1947. His military career as a foreign language interpreter took him many places like Korea and Europe, and eventually led him to Alaska.

"Sergeant William Hernandez was based here at Fort Richardson around the late 50s and he was charged with rehabilitating the streams and lakes on Fort Richardson," said Andrea Tesch, Fish Culturist III. "He began rearing fish in the cooling pond of the power plant here, back when it was operable.
The cooling pond was used to bring Ship Creek water to the power plant to cool the turbines," she explained. "Then the warm water would come back through, cool as it went through the ponds and he used that heated water to rear rainbow trout to stock in the lakes on base."

Mr. Hernandez was known for being a good tactician -- he defeated Japan's top chess player in a tournament -- but deciding to use the heat generated by the power plant was ingenious.

"He was completely self-taught, but when he retired from the Army the Alaska Department of Fish and Game took over this facility to raise fish for stocking around Alaska, not just for on base," Mrs. Tesch said. "He was one of the first fish culturists to be hired by the state of Alaska. He worked here, he worked at the Elmendorf Hatchery and at the Fire Lake Hatchery as a fish culturist."

The new hatchery, a $96 million-project, is under construction and scheduled to be finished around June 2011. The new facility will combine a mix of rainbow trout, arctic char, arctic grayling, and coho and chinook salmon. Once the facility is at full capacity, it will allow for a 50 percent increase over historic stocking levels.

The hatchery will be supplying fish to nearly 300 different locations in the state, said Jeff Milton, Hatchery Program Supervisor.

"There's never enough fish," Mr. Milton said. "There's always a desire for more fish and that's worldwide. Our job is to assess whether that desire is simply unreasonable or if it can be met. The main reason that we produce fish is to provide a fishing opportunity. Without our releases you wouldn't see the fishery for Chinook on Ship Creek.'

We simply couldn't sustain a fishery with a population of half the state within 10 miles of that creek, there would be no fishing that," he explained. "We release fish here, and now that's the second largest sport fish location in the state of Alaska."

Mr. Hernandez's joy for rearing fish will continue to be passed onto other generations since the new facility will be unique in that it will house a public-accessible second floor overlooking the facility allowing tour groups to see the different types and ages of fish being raised in the hatchery.

"We always felt bad that we couldn't offer the public more access without endangering the fish and with this new facility we've found a way to allow the interested public see what goes on and keep contamination out," Mr. Milton said.

The public will be able to look into the almost completely automated rearing tanks and watch as eggs are sorted.

The hatchery provides fishing opportunities for people who may not have the access to Alaska's other fishing areas.

"I love doing that sort of thing and a facility like this allows you to do that. I live next to Jewel Lake now and I can drive by there any minute of any hour of the day and somebody's fishing, and usually it's a kid who rode over there on his bicycle with his fishing pole strapped to his back," Mr. Milton said. "That's why I do it and that's why the state does it too. To provide opportunity to people who can't go out and kill those king salmon or access that ramp site."

The new hatchery will be located right off base on Post Road. After its completion the public will be able to access the second floor viewing area or schedule tours.

"It's very fitting (to name the new hatchery after Sergeant Hernandez)," Mrs. Tesch said. "He was truly one of the pioneers of sport fish stocking in Alaska by getting this program going and by having the vision to see he could use that waste heat from that power plant to produce some pretty nice fish for stocking in the lakes.