The Gvammen fish hatchery

You will soon be passing a fish hatchery. It was constructed in 2006. It was the Numedal-Laugen bridge owners association who built and own the facility, with help from a grant from Nore and Uvdal municipality. The Numedal-Laugen bridge owners association have responsibility for utilising the water resources in the lake for the good of the community. Through power production they regulate the water level in Numedalslågen and are also therefore required by the authorities to ensure the release of fish into the watercourse. The reason that this facility was built was that a law was passed that required that the fish hatchery needed to be in the waterway where the fish were to be released, in order to prevent disease from spreading. The roe that comes here to the facility in Gvammen, comes from trout stocks in Halnefjord on the Hardanger plateau and Tunhovd fjord. They are called brood fish. After around 18 months, the fish are released again in different locations, but all with Numedalslågen as their catchment area. You can recognise that the fish has come from the hatchery as the adipose fin is clipped off. As the municipality contributed to the facility, the facility can also deliver fish to privately owned fishing ponds in the Numedalslågen catchment area. The hatchery can breed an incredible 50 000 fish every year. The majority are released in Numedalslågen and it is an important player in strengthening the local fish stocks in the lake, which is Norway’s fourth longest river.