FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Welaka National Fish Hatchery
Putnam County · North Florida & First Coast
A federal fish hatchery on the St. Johns River, running since 1926, with a public aquarium and two pond systems.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Florida built the hatchery in 1926 and transferred it to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1938. It sits on the St. Johns River along County Road 309 and works in two parts. The Welaka Unit draws river water and has the aquarium beside it. The Beecher Unit, three miles south, is fed by a spring putting out 4,000 gallons a minute at a steady 72 degrees, which is why it can grow fish through the year without heating anything. The main job is Atlantic striped bass, raised here for the St. Johns River and for Gulf coast waters where the population needed rebuilding. The work has widened since: the hatchery has raised eastern indigo snakes since 2018 and Florida grasshopper sparrows since 2019, both federally protected, and released them to the wild. The public aquarium shows the fish of the river in tanks, and the ponds and surrounding trails are good for birds, which is why it is on the birding trail
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