Research in Aquaculture & Seafood Technology

• Goals
• Accomplishments in Aquaculture and Seafood Technology

Coordinators: Fred P. Binkowski, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Jeffrey A. Malison, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Aquaculture plays a key role in the management of fishery resources in the Great Lakes region and has a real potential for commercial seafood production.

Resource management agencies throughout the region depend on aquaculture to support Great Lakes sport fisheries, which have an estimated total value of $1.4 billion. The trout and salmon fisheries of Lake Michigan are maintained almost entirely by stocking, as are many inland fisheries. A large share of Wisconsin s fish propagation budget is spent on culturing cool-water species, especially walleye and muskellunge. In Wisconsin and many other parts of the nation, cool-water fish culture and management is one of the fastest- growing areas of freshwater fishery biology.

Wisconsin also has a well-established aquaculture industry. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wisconsin is the nation s fifth-largest producer of rainbow trout. The state has more than 780 licensed fish farmers, who raise a variety of panfish, bait, and cool- and warm-water game fish. A strategic 20-year plan recently developed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources should result in much greater private-sector involvement in propagating game and forage fish. Several of Wisconsin s large sport fishing clubs already operate fish hatching and rearing facilities, and more are planned.

Despite its successes, the Great Lakes commercial fishing industry remains in a fragile state due to the limited number of fishable species, quotas and other restrictions. To improve income, commercial fishers and processors need to make more efficient use of the resources available to them, creating new markets for underutilized fish stocks as well as making better use of existing stocks. Improving the industry s competitive position will require more sophisticated seafood technology to produce, harvest, process and market fishery products.

The primary long-range goal of this research subprogram is to develop and improve the scientific and technological database necessary to propagate, culture, harvest, process and market cool-water species like perch, walleye and muskellunge, and cold-water species like trout, salmon and whitefish.

 

The long-goals of the Aquaculture and Seafood Technology Subprogram are to:

• Develop the scientific and technological database for the propagation and culture of fish with commercial and/or recreational value in Wisconsin

• Enhance the safety, quality, shelf life, and marketability of existing and new seafoods and seafood by-products, with an emphasis on traditional and nontraditional Great Lakes market species

 

Research priorities and emerging issues in Aquaculture and Seafood Technology include:

• Characterize and control physiological responses of fish to environmental stressors

• Improve growth and control reproductive development in domesticated warm-, cool- and cold-water fish species by developing environmental, genetic, endocrine and physiological biotechnologies

• Develop biological, physical and chemical parameters for water recirculation, flow-through, pond and cage culture systems for Great Lakes fishes

• Control fish diseases (e.g., develop disease-resistant fish strains among hatchery and wild stocks, and identify, detect and control diseases encountered in Great Lakes aquaculture operations)

• Develop cost:benefit analyses of producing different species in Great Lakes aquaculture operations, including the management, marketing and financing of operations

• Develop and test aquaculture methods and stocks that will maximize post-stocking compatibility with natural ecosystems, survival and reproductive success of hatchery-raised fish in the Great Lakes

• Improve feed effectiveness through nutritional analyses and identification of alternative nutrient sources

• Evaluate technologies to minimize consumptive water use and effluents in aquaculture operations (e.g., water conservation, recycling and effluent treatment)

• Develop methods to isolate and stabilize long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids

• Enhance commercial use of abundant, nontraditional species of fish in Lakes Michigan and Superior that are not currently targeted by the commercial fishery

• Improve food quality, nutritional value, safety and shelf life of seafood products by (1) evaluating select breeding, feeding, rearing, harvesting and processing strategies, (2) characterizing and controlling the causes of spoilage and off-flavors, and (3) comparing aquacultured and wild harvest products

• Deliver training to enable commercial fish processors to comply with product safety assurance regulations (e.g., HACCP)

 

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page created 1995
last updated 12 December 2000 Karl
© University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Research/Aquaculture/research.html