Aquaculture in Wisconsin is a growing industry

Aquaculture in Wisconsin is poised for growth and the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (UWSP) facility is fully involved to assist the effort.

            A report from the region says a new recently announced partnership between the Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and UWSP’s Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, located near Bayfield, is aimed at redoubling public awareness and also aiding in aquaculture training in the coming four years.

            Chris Cirmo, dean of the College of Letters and Science at UWSP, was cited as saying the partnership “validates NADF (under as the directorship of UWSP Professor of Fisheries Biology, Dr Chris Hartleb) as the premier aquaculture facility in the midwest.”

            Hartleb called it “a tremendous honor”.

            The National Sea Grant College Program is part National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has a network of 33 programs scattered across every coastal and Great Lakes state.  The program involves over 3,000 scientists, engineers, educators, students and outreach experts, addressing issues from invasive species and sustainable coastal development, to seafood safety.

            A few of the two-year research projects and partnerships that are under way at the UWSP demonstration facility include the following.

            • $291,751 Sea Grant-funded Workforce Education and Training for Environmentally and Economically Sustainable Great Lakes Aquaculture project, developing a series of teaching modules for new and existing businesses.

            • $216,000 National Sea Grant-aided programs to yield and also evaluate economics of new technologies for raising yellow perch fingerlings.

            • $182,000-boosted project under the USDA’s Small Business Innovative Research program, which has forged a partnership with Northside Enterprises of Black Creek, to commercialize hybrid-walleye production.

            • $60,000 grant from UPG Asset Management Inc., to provide production systems for raising Atlantic salmon and making some salmon eggs available to the state’s aquaculture industry.

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Caption: Atlantic salmon eggs

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Caption: University of Wisconsin public awareness program