GLWI donates 500 pounds of perch to

Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee

Posted: March 6, 2009

Sherrie Tussler, director of the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, opens a GLWI freezer filled with nearly 500 pounds of yellow perch filets. The fish were raised in GLWI's indoor aquaculture center.

The WATER Institute donated nearly 500 pounds of frozen yellow perch filets to the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee's food bank today.

Senior scientist Fred Binkowski and his staff grew the fish from eggs to market size in the WATER Institute's indoor aquaculture center.

"It's a fish tank to food bank day," said Sherrie Tussler, director of the Hunger Task Force. "There are a couple hundred families that are going to sit down and enjoy a fish fry that would normally not be able to."

The fish are a product of Binkowski's research into improving aquaculture, or fish farming. Using a method he patented that includes controlling environmental factors such as water temperature, Binkowski is able to breed perch year-round. He and his colleagues have also reduced the amount of time it takes to raise the fish to market size by using a recirculating aquaculture system.

"These guys have a green thumb when it comes to raising fish," said WATER Institute director Val Klump. "They are probably the world's leading yellow perch aquaculture researchers."

The WATER Institute is the site of the only U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Services Aquaculture Cooperative in the Great Lakes region. Senator Herb Kohl helped secure funding for the program, which works to advance and stimulate commercial aquaculture for food production.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing segment of agriculture in the United States, due in large part to declines in wild fish populations and an increase in demand for fish.

Binkowski is hopeful his research efforts will help spur the development of an indoor, urban aquaculture industry in Milwaukee. Such an industry would both place food at the center of consumer demand and create jobs.

"The research that's done at the WATER Institute around aquaculture is certainly an example of sustainable solutions—solutions that can improve worldwide food production but also create jobs and help the regional economy," said UW-Milwaukee provost and vice chancellor Rita Cheng.

"You've all heard the saying, 'if you give someone a fish, you can feed them for a day; if you teach them to fish, you can feed them for a lifetime,'" said Klump. "But if you can teach them to raise fish, they can feed their community for a lifetime, and that's really what this is all about."

See related coverage of GLWI's donation at UW-Milwaukee's news page.

–Jennifer Yauck