September 2013
Give a man a fish and
you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. – Proverb
Teach someone to grow fish locally and you sustain a
community and the environment. Mr. Rob Wibbeler (secretary and treasurer
of the nonprofit Indiana
Aquaculture Association [IAA]) described fish farming in Indiana and the industry’s need for
inventors.
The human population is growing exponentially and simple natural
food sources can’t keep up. As a result,
the oceans are over-fished and the U.S. imports 91% of its seafood. Innovators are solving this problem with
aquaculture—farming fish,
shellfish, and water plants.
Two popular aquacultural tools are cages and tanks. Time
magazine named the Velella
Mariculture Project one of the best inventions of 2012 because, in 6 months
and with almost no effect on the ocean, it turned 2,000 kampuchi (yellowtail) fingerlings
into 5 tons of healthy fish. The fish
were kept and fed soybean products in 20-foot cages that were allowed to drift in
the ocean near Hawaii. The final food conversion ratio (FCR) was 1.6 lbs
feed per 1 lb fish, compared to 1.9:1 for chicken and 6.5:1 for beef. Mortality rate was less than 2%, compared to 15%
for typical tank aquaculture.
Although mostly landlocked, Hoosiers can benefit from other
forms of aquaculture, such as seasonal pond culture, indoor recirculating tank
aquaculture, and indoor aquaponic tank culture (combines fish with water plants). Pond culture in cages supports the farming of
a variety of fish (bass, bluegill, carp, perch, tilapia, and trout; the largest
yellow perch farm in the world is in Albany,
IN.)
Fish farming works in Indiana,
directly providing 169 jobs and adding $12 million annually to Indiana’s economy. All 34 Hoosier farmers sell all the fish and
shrimp they can produce. All of them benefit
from low transportation costs because fish can be sold locally and fish feed
consists largely of two Hoosier crops – soybeans and corn. But to become more profitable to farmers and more
beneficial to consumers, aquaculture, especially tank culture, needs inventors who
think outside the box. Few tank systems have
been tested because, so far, they have all originated in waste watertreatment technology. The industry needs:
new modular designs that can be scaled to different sizes; less expensive and
more efficient equipment; more efficient pumping, oxygenating, and cleaning
water; and methods of preventing disease transmission among fish.
The Indiana Aquaculture Association helps fish farmers and
those they serve by educating and bringing together chefs, consumers, educators,
engineers, farmers, and manufacturers to improve the industry. For more information about fish farm tours, aquaculture,
and how it can benefit you, contact the Indiana Aquaculture Association (info@indianaaquaculture.com; 317-417-0090). Thank
you for your presentation, Mr. Wibbeler!