The last of more than 61,000 baby salmon are now in their new home at the Waitaki Riparian Enhancement Society's Bell's Pond rearing race next to the Waitaki River at Ikawai.
Once they have reached about 185g by May next year, the salmon will be released in a bid to boost the Waitaki River's salmon population and provide more fish for anglers.
To get them to that stage would take about five tonnes of special feed and cost about $20,000, not counting the volunteer labour that would go into raising them, society volunteer Lynn McGregor said.
On Monday, Central South Island Fish and Game Council officer Graeme Hughes transferred the last 6100 fish from the society's hatchery at Welcome Stream, on the south side of the Waitaki River, to the rearing race on the north side at Ikawai.
Already, about 55,000 had been transferred, the first weighing about 1.5g going across on October 3.
The fish released on Monday averaged 2.6g.
The salmon have come from fish from the Hakataramea River, which were stripped. The 60,000 salmon was the maximum the hatchery could handle this year, but it was a big boost on the first release of 2000 last year, a trial run.
It is also the first year the Welcome Stream hatchery has been in operation - last year's fish were hatched at the McKinnon hatchery on the Rangitata River.
Mr McGregor said the society was planning to expand the hatchery and hoped next year it could raise about 100,000, the maximum it wanted to release each year.
The society, hoping for a better return rate, grows the salmon bigger than most others before they are released.
Salmon released next year will start to return in bulk as 3-year-olds in 2015. Fins will be clipped so anglers can identify and record the hatchery fish, giving the society an indication of the return rate.
