Aquaculture and Fisheries Research Center

PIs: Fred Binkowski, Rick Goetz, John Janssen, Matt Rise, Brian Shepherd

Aquaculture — In Wisconsin, resource conditions for Aquaculture (i.e., fish farming) are well suited for both cold water and cool water species. These include trout, salmon, whitefish, ciscoes, walleye and perch–all of which are marketable. With changes in the state's economic picture, there have been some losses in important industries. The "infant" business of Aquaculture may be an excellent catalyst for increasing entrepreneurship and employment. Indeed, with the dairy industry decline, Aquaculture may be the perfect mechanism for rural regeneration and contribute significantly to Wisconsin's economic development.

The WATER Institute's Aquaculture project is concerned primarily with the development of practical rearing techniques for, and the domestication of, suitable regional fish species. Our goal is to support the development and growth of the regional Aquaculture industry for commercial food production, as well as fish propagation in support of conservation and fisheries management efforts.

Since 1985, we have provided Aquaculture rearing information through the UW Sea Grant Advisory Services Program. Under its auspices, several thousand people have attended Aquaculture conferences, workshops and lectures. This outreach effort provides invaluable information to both current and prospective Aquaculture entrepreneurs. Because of the rapid growth and relative infancy of this field, there is a critical need for state-of-the-art information on the fundamental principles of animal husbandry, water quality, economics, and engineering aspects of Aquaculture technology.

When feasible, we respond to individual requests for information and conduct on-site visits at the WATER Institute. Through this advisory service, we intend to transfer up-to-date research and propagation methods to the developing regional Aquaculture industry.

Fisheries Research — Propagation studies have focused on a broad spectrum of Great Lakes regional species, but primarily on yellow perch, lake sturgeon, whitefish, pacific salmon, lake trout, hybrid striped bass and sunfish. These studies have also involved improvements in rearing system technology for water usage reduction. The Aquaculture and Fisheries Research Center has installed a commercially scaled recirculating Aquaculture system (RAS) at the GLWI. In collaboration with Native American and private commercial fish producers, this system has been used to conduct an investigation of the technological and economic feasibility of RAS units for yellow perch grow-out.

 
For more information about the Aquaculture and Fisheries Research Center, contact Fred Binkowski, sturgeon@uwm.edu.

Fisheries Ecology (Janssen Lab)

USDA ARS