Funds to support RAS research
January 9, 2019
By Liza Mayer
Wisconsin Sea Grant received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College Program to examine and overcome three critical barriers to the growth of land-based Atlantic salmon production in the Great Lakes region.
Wisconsin Sea Grant received $245 The findings from this study will help ensure the best standard operating procedures for quality and efficiency and will be available to all commercial producers of salmon harvested from RAS, said The Freshwater Institute.
“Land-based closed containment operations using RAS technology offer an economically viable, sustainable, and local means of aquaculture production. The Freshwater Institute is proud to partner on this work and to contribute scientific research and development to support the growing land-based aquaculture sector and facilitate domestic agricultural economic contribution, job growth, and food security,” said Brian Vinci, director of the Freshwater Institute.
The $245,000 in federal funds that Wisconsin Sea Grant received is a portion of $11 million in grants that NOAA allocated for 22 projects aimed at advancing aquaculture in the United States.
Researchers in the Wisconsin project will focus on two key issues that have hampered the continuing growth of the land-based salmon industry in the US: fish health and fish flavor.
“Land-based salmon aquaculture is growing by leaps and bounds in North America. This research study is very exciting because it is really going to help the industry. We are working in close concert with private partners that are doing this type of aquaculture right now,” said Greg Fischer of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF), who will serve as the project’s leader and research team organizer.
