Originally published July 26, 2010
By Ed Waters Jr.
News-Post Staff
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Photo by Skip Lawrence Matt F. Klinger, right, operates the Hunting Creek Fisheries goldfish farm near Thurmont. Jim Shubert, left, is production manager. | |
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| AT A GLANCEWHAT: Hunting Creek Fisheries WHERE: 6916 Blacks Mill Road, Thurmont CONTACT: 301-271-7475 or visit www.huntingcreek fisheries.com | |
A fourth-generation member of the family who owns the fisheries has been named president of the business and is combining modern technology with the skills of raising high-quality fish.
"Things have slowed down. The big rush is in the spring," said Matthew F. Klinger. His great-grandfather, Frederick Tresselt, launched the business in 1924.
Klinger, along with operations manager Jim Shubert, other employees and family members, raises fish and aquatic plants on the 125-acre aquaculture site. Klinger has helped develop Hunting Creek Fisheries own line of color-enhanced, floating fish food.
"We used to ship around the world, and still do, but mostly now in the U.S.," Klinger said. "There are so many regulations for international shipping."
The tanks and ponds hold several dozen kinds of goldfish, koi and orfe, Klinger said, from "comets" (fish with longer tails) to new breeds created by Klinger such as the Apricot Blush and Lemon Metallic.
"My grandfather, Ernest Tresselt, was recognized as a leader in the aquaculture world," Klinger said. "He was really into the genetics. He put Hunting Creek Fisheries on the international map. I wish he were here to see this," Klinger said, displaying an Apricot Blush fish.
The fisheries are also among the few in the U.S. that breed the Golden Orfe.
It was the orfe that brought Winston Churchill to the fisheries during a visit with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to what was then known as Shangri-La, now Camp David.
"My grandmother showed Churchill all around. He was very interested in the orfe," Klinger said. The Frederick area once had many goldfish farms, he said, but now there are only a few.
The management passed to Klinger's parents, Raymond and Drusilla, in the 1990s, and his uncle, John Tresselt.
Klinger graduated from the University of North Carolina with an MBA and worked as a bond broker for an investment firm in Virginia. He is blending sustainable energy ideas with sustainable business insight.
"To me, sustainability means the volatility of the business. If it means reducing costs, that's financial sustainability," Klinger said. "There is a triple bottom line: financial, environmental and social."
The company has always used good environmental practices to ensure the future of the ponds, tanks and fish, he said.
Klinger has added geothermal energy to heat buildings and is working with Sustainable Energy Systems of Frederick on a hybrid heating system that uses an outdoor hydronic wood furnace and solar hot water. It will eliminate the use of an estimated 6,500 gallons of propane gas a year.
Work on the hybrid heating and solar water heating systems will begin in September. Klinger got help with the cost through a grant from EnSave, a program of the Maryland Energy Administration and agricultural agencies.
Shubert, the operations manager, has a degree in fisheries from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. "I grew up in the country and it seemed like an interesting career," Shubert said. Last spring, he launched a blog: Jim the Fishman, about his life as a goldfish farmer.
For shipping, the fish are put in bags filled with not only water, but food and some vitamins, Klinger said. Foam is placed around the bag, especially in hot weather.
Customers are pet stores, water garden shops and individuals, Klinger said. Retail customers are welcome, but they are asked to call for an appointment.
"Like many family-owned businesses, we didn't have a line of succession worked out," Klinger said.
"My parents even considered selling the business, but that led people to think we were closing the business. I want to get the word out that we are in business."
People see the name Hunting Creek and think the business sells game fish, Klinger said.
There are other family members in the business, including Klinger's wife, Jessica, a Spanish teacher at South Hagerstown High School.
Besides the new line of fish, Klinger is planning an online store for the food line, HCF apparel and koi prints by local artist Dennis Blalock. Hunting Creek Fisheries also sells crayfish and snails.
Hunting Creek Fisheries combines aquaculture with sustainability - The Frederick News-Post Online
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