Hubbs-SeaWorld Launches New Program

March 20, 2015

The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) continues on its mission to find sea life solutions and protect marine and coastal environments by establishing a new program known as the Dick Laub Fisheries Replenishment Program. The program was made possible by the generous $900,000 donation of Dorothea Laub, wife of the late, long-time angler Dick Laub. Aiming to produce fish culture refinement and juvenile fish pilot production and release, the new program makes restoring nearshore fisheries its number one priority.

One of California’s premier aquaculture facilities of the HSWRI is the 22,000-square-foot Leon Raymond Hubbard, Jr., Marine Fish Hatchery at the Agua HHubbs SeaWorldedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad, California. It was built as an expansion of the successful Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program (OREHP). The OREHP is a conservation research program of the HSWRI devoted to counteract the rapid decline of vital fish, most notably the white seabass. The culture techniques developed by HSWRI scientists and volunteer anglers have led to the recovery of certain fish stock like the white seabass.

The Leon Raymond Hubbard, Jr., Marine Fish Hatchery supports the efforts to protect the California white seabass population through innovative aquaculture and fishery enhancement techniques developed at HSWRI. The hatchery is capable of producing over 350,000 juvenile white seabass annually and thus serves as a major site for the implementation of this program. The OREHP draws on vast cultural experience since 1963 as it continues to develop new methods to protect additional species such as the halibut and yellowtail. Alongside the HSWRI, the Coastal Conservation Association of California (CCA) has designated the Dick Laub Replenishment Program as its first priority after incorporation. The Laub memorial gift will make the technical and regulatory phases of the program feasible, though further support from philanthropic partners and the angler community will be needed over the next several years to keep the program strong.