Fish hatchers have certainly been a key element in the field of management of autochtonous fish populations, capable of satisfy many wildlife necessities at the same time and optimize the repopulation of watercourses.

Moreover, along with the actions and measures that must be adopted in order to remove or mitigate the environmental threats that have caused the impoverishment of a population and/or prevent its recovery. It is also necessary to directly support the same population in decline: for this purpose, fish hatchers give a precious contribution. It is possible to carry out in them the artificial reproduction of wild fish. Adaptive hereditary characters for that specific environment are selected to be in their genetic makeup, it is furthermore possible to produce juvenile fish from repopulation of species not available in common commercial networks, it is also possible to select the breeders in order to avoid hybridisation – unfortunately more and more common in our rivers: for instance the sea trout x marble trout and the danube roach x common roach hybrids. The hatcher allows to pick the most convenient moment for the seeding, taking into consideration weather conditions, water flow,staff availability, the possibility of carrying out the repopulation in different moments, carrying small amounts of fishes and thus limiting mortality.

We must not forget the important function of fish hatchet from and educational and divulgative point of view. They are, in fact, structures that allow visits from school children, who love to watch myriads of small fishes. Scientific research can also find in these structures a great laboratory for ichtiology where there is a chance to study fishes that are still quite unknown but it is fundamental to know in order to manage them in the best way.