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In: Emma Hauser, recirculating aquaculture, UWSP NADF, walleye

Good news for fans of the Friday fish fry: locally raised walleye may soon be coming to a plate near you.

This past spring, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF) released the “Walleye Culture Guide,” a manual for fish farmers on how to raise walleye from egg to market-size fish using indoor recirculating aquaculture systems.

Cover of the Walley Culture Guide, which features four images of walleye at different life stages

The “Walleye Culture Guide” helps fish farmers raise walleye using indoor recirculating aquaculture.

According to lead author and aquaculture outreach specialist Emma Hauser, the guide is the culmination of years of research and a great enthusiasm for the fish, especially in the upper Midwest where it’s enjoyed both as a game fish and one that’s good to eat.

“The facility has been raising walleye for probably the last 15 years now, and there’s been such a strong interest in raising the species indoors for food fish,” she said.

The 65-page guide features findings from Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded research investigating how to raise walleye using indoor tanks for commercial production. Projects explored different starter feeds for walleye, the optimal density of fish per tank, and more recently, how to manipulate light levels and water temperature to ensure they spawn year round.

The process of raising walleye indoors, however, is a tricky one. NADF research program manager and coauthor Tyler Firkus noted that walleye physiology presents a unique challenge.

“When walleye hatch, they’re the size of your eyelash and are very, very delicate,” said Firkus. “It’s really difficult to provide the right conditions for them to thrive and begin accepting a commercial feed, where those issues are easier to overcome with Atlantic salmon or rainbow trout.”

The guide explains the procedures NADF has been refining over the past 15 years to navigate such challenges and features photos and diagrams of protocols, equipment and fish at different life stages. Firkus hopes the visuals make the information more accessible to fish farmers and easier to understand.

“One of the big problems is that a lot of the information that farmers would need to raise walleye is in difficult-to-access or difficult-to-read academic journals,” said Firkus. “And while that’s a great avenue for disseminating this work to the academic community, for the average fish farmer, that’s not the most effective mode of transferring that science.”

A person holds up a market-size walleye produced at NADF.

A market-sized walleye raised at the UWSP Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility. Credit: Emma Hauser

Prospective walleye producers can also consult NADF’s video series, the “Walleye Culture Video Manual,” to learn how to perform the basics of raising walleye indoors, like cleaning tanks and hatching fish. The video series and the guide complement each other: one demonstrates the nuts and bolts of walleye aquaculture, and the other provides the details.

Both the manual and video series are free and available to the public. Said Firkus, “What I hope is that [fish farmers] who are on the edge of deciding what species to raise can decide to go for walleye with a bit more confidence because they have this wonderful guide.”

Walleye continues to be a species with substantial aquaculture potential as a food fish due to well-established markets, high value and fast growth when raised indoors in water reuse systems. Currently, most of the walleye consumed in the Midwest is imported from Canada. With the help of this guide, restaurants across the country could soon feature walleye raised a little closer to home.

Said Hauser, “To be able to raise fresh, locally produced walleye to market is a major benefit not only to consumers but to our local fish farmers.”

The post New aquaculture guide helps fish farmers raise walleye for commercial production first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/new-aquaculture-guide-helps-fish-farmers-raise-walleye-for-commercial-production/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-aquaculture-guide-helps-fish-farmers-raise-walleye-for-commercial-production

Jenna Mertz

On:
In: aquaculture, burbot, Chris Hartleb, Fellows, Greg Fischer, NADF, Pat Blaufuss, Patrick Blaufuss, recirculating aquaculture systems, saugeye, UWSP NADF, walleye

Aquaculture, or fish farming, is a $21 million industry in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Sea Grant has a long history of nurturing the growth of aquaculture through research and public outreach. Coupled with Sea Grant efforts related to Great Lakes commercial fishing, these activities help Wisconsin producers offer consumers a sustainable, domestic alternative to imported fish and seafood.

A fresh chapter in this history is the Wisconsin Sea Grant Keillor Fellowship in Aquaculture, created in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF), where the position is based. The Bayfield facility is a national leader in aquaculture research.

Dr. Patrick Blaufuss (submitted photo)

The inaugural fellow, Dr. Patrick Blaufuss, began his two-year position in September. He holds a doctorate in animal physiology from the University of Idaho, where his research focused on nutrition and physiology in rainbow trout. He’s also a graduate of North Dakota State University and Southern Illinois University, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology, respectively.

One of his greatest satisfactions, said Blaufuss, is seeing laboratory research provide useful results for fish farmers. “I’m excited to get experience with the aquaculture industry in the Great Lakes region… and to get more experience with commercial producers and the commercial setting, helping them refine what they do. Applying what we do in the lab out in the real world is very important,” said Blaufuss.

One of his top priorities will be analyzing data from past and current NADF projects and preparing manuscripts for publication in scientific journals.

Said Greg Fischer, NADF assistant director and research program manager, “Having Patrick on board as our new Sea Grant fellow will directly impact getting our completed research projects analyzed and published in a timely manner, which allows us to share results with the aquaculture industry and scientific community more rapidly, and to move aquaculture forward with confidence.”

Dr. Chris Hartleb, a UW-Stevens Point professor of fisheries biology and NADF co-director, echoed those thoughts. “Pat’s background and knowledge will assist us with completing past projects, restructuring current projects and expanding our ability to provide assistance to many aquaculturists with new projects.”

Blaufuss’ prior experience includes restoration aquaculture work with burbot in Idaho, where that species was almost extirpated from the Kootenai River watershed due to the operation of a dam that led to increased water temperatures (burbot need very cold water to spawn successfully). The recreational burbot fishery there had been closed since 1992. As part of the restoration work, Blaufuss served as a consultant to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, which runs a commercial-scale fish hatchery. Employing results from University of Idaho lab research, Blaufuss helped the tribe with its first season of burbot aquaculture. Subsequent years of restocking efforts by the Kootenai Tribe have succeeded in restoring burbot populations to a level that recreational fishing is once again possible for anglers.

Commented Blaufuss, “I came out there [to the tribal hatchery] regularly throughout their first season, since there are multiple steps in burbot culture, and you have to be aware of them.” Burbot are extremely carnivorous, so cannibalization can be an issue, and they also have a longer larval rearing period compared to some other species. “It was very fulfilling to help them through each stage of the culture, and to see how our smaller-scale research data could be applied to a full-size commercial setting.”

Blaufuss kayaking on Lake Erie near Gibraltar, Mich. (submitted photo)

Currently, Blaufuss is writing a manuscript about previous NADF work on commercial diets for larval walleye and saugeye (a walleye-sauger hybrid that also occurs in the wild). “It’s so important that producers know the best diet to feed these larval fish,” he said. (Wisconsin Sea Grant funded this research in its 2018-20 grant cycle; read more about it here.)

He’s also working on a nanobubble oxygenation project, a novel way of introducing oxygen into aquaculture systems. “We’re looking at how it affects fish health, growth and other parameters,” said Blaufuss. The National Sea Grant Office is supporting the nanobubble work; read more about it here.

While much of his work is remote at the moment due to the ongoing pandemic, Blaufuss said that the two-year commitment at NADF gives him a good chunk of time to work with fish species and aquaculture systems that are new to him, as well as boost the facility’s research output.

It’s all part of Sea Grant and NADF’s broader goals to train professionals—from undergraduate students to postdoctoral fellows like Blaufuss—and support sustainable aquaculture that is backed by cutting-edge science. When the public health crisis abates, said Hartleb, Blaufuss will be able to get out to conferences, workshops and farms to enhance connections and share NADF information.

Said Fischer, “Wisconsin Sea Grant has been a great partner in all that we do, and we look forward to the future and continued partnership and cooperation.”

The post Sea Grant aquaculture fellow begins two-year position in Bayfield to boost research capacity first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/sea-grant-aquaculture-fellow/

Jennifer Smith

On:
In: aquaculture, Atlantic salmon, Bret Shaw, consumer opinion, Emma Wiermaa, Greg Fischer, Kristin Runge, NADF, RAS-N, saprolegnia, saprolegniasis, social science, UWSP NADF

Two Sea Grant-funded aquaculture studies have borne fruit with new publications. One aids the growing industry surrounding Atlantic salmon raised in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The other looks at Wisconsin residents’ views of aquaculture (often called fish farming) and related public policy.

Both tie in with the broader goals of Wisconsin Sea Grant and the National Sea Grant Office in terms of supporting a sustainable, domestic supply of fish and seafood and closing the trade gap in this sector of the economy.

In this 2018 photo, Greg Fischer and Emma Wiermaa handle a fish at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, located in Bayfield. (Photo: Narayan Mahon)

The Atlantic salmon paper appears in the June/July issue of Aquaculture Magazine (Vol. 46, No. 3). Its authors are Greg Fischer, Emma Wiermaa, Chris Good, John Davidson and Steve Summerfelt. Fischer and Wiermaa are based at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF). Located in Bayfield, NADF is a frequent partner with Wisconsin Sea Grant and Wiermaa’s position as an aquaculture outreach specialist and research associate is co-supported by Sea Grant.

The Aquaculture Magazine article looks at some of the issues affecting the growing of the land-based salmon industry in the U.S., such as saprolegniasis (commonly called “fungus”), which can affect both farm-raised and wild fish. (For more information, see our previous story here.)

The piece also looks at methods for preventing “off flavor” in the fish. Often described as a musty or earthy taste, it can be off-putting for consumers.

Fischer, Wiermaa and their collaborators are also participants in a broader initiative funded by the National Sea Grant Office called RAS-N, for Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network. A large-scale effort between three Sea Grant programs—Wisconsin, Maryland and Maine—and numerous private and nonprofit research entities, RAS-N aims to support the growth of sustainable, land-based salmon production in the United States. That collaboration kicked off with a December 2019 meeting in northern Wisconsin.

The second paper hot off the digital press, so to speak, springs from social science research conducted by Bret Shaw, Kristin Runge, Laura Witzling, Shiyu Yang, Chris Hartleb and Deidre Peroff. On June 16, it was published online in the journal Environmental Communication.

The paper focuses on insights gleaned from a survey of 3,000 randomly selected Wisconsin households. While consumer views on aquaculture have been widely studied in Europe, the topic has received less attention in the U.S. The team looked at emotions and opinions about Wisconsin aquaculture—which, they found, were generally favorable among those surveyed.

The team also looked at predictors of support for environmental policy in nuanced situations: individuals may want policy to help an industry grow, to regulate it, or both at the same time.

The paper, “Predictors of Environmental Policy Support: The Case of Inland Aquaculture in Wisconsin,” may be found online.

Original Article

Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant

Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/findings-from-aquaculture-projects-published/

Jennifer Smith