Cutting-Edge Aquaculture Facility Opens

The St. Croix Aquaculture Facility celebrated its grand opening October 1. About 500 people attended the event, including representatives from the St. Croix Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, which owns the facility; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; the University of Wisconsin System; and community members.

A week later, the first batch of 150,000 yellow perch fingerlings arrived at the $25 million, state-of-the-art facility. More fingerlings will be added for an expected first-year production between 500,000 and 1 million fish, according to Fred Binkowski, UW Sea Grant aquaculture specialist.

Binkowski and UW Sea Grant were instrumental in bringing the facility to Wisconsin, according to Walter Butler, president of Butler Design and Technology, who headed the design and construction of the facility.

"We've turned to Fred and his staff in Milwaukee constantly for advice and counsel throughout the project," Butler said.

The St. Croix tribe hopes to diversify its economic activity and provide employment for its members through the facility.

The two-million-gallon facility may be the largest and most advanced commercial recirculation system in North America, according to Binkowski.

The project is unprecedented, said James Butler, chief financial officer of Butler Design and Technology. New technology will be incorporated into the operation continually, he added.

The recirculating facility was designed to have minimal impact on the environment, Butler said. "We're meeting some of the toughest discharge standards in the country," he said.

The facility will draw in 500 gallons of groundwater per minute and discharge the same amount of drinking-quality water into a nearby stream.

A team of chemists, biologists, pathologists, and microbiologists is required to maintain optimal levels of oxygen, nitrogen, sodium, and many other parameters in the system. The facility will initially employ about 25 people, eventually about 50.

Aquaculture represents a natural extension of the tribe's historic fishing activities, said Kevin Hopkins, general manager. The venture is an attempt to meet the high demand for yellow perch in the Great Lakes basin created by the crash of the yellow perch fishery in the late 1980s.

When the facility reaches full production, it should produce about 3.4 million pounds of perch per year, Binkowski said.

- John Karl

Last updated 16 April 2002 by Karl
All contents copyright 2001 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

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