Virginia Aquaculture Leaders Take Measures to Keep the State’s Industry Robust
In partnership with: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
From controlling growing environments to managing an invasive predator fish, aquaculture industry leaders in Virginia are protecting and expanding the state’s robust business, helping the Commonwealth rank fourth in total aquaculture sales according to the 2018 Census of Aquaculture.
Sustaining Growth and Growers
Virginia State University (VSU) aquaculture instructors and researchers have been helping producers raise fish successfully for more than 30 years. VSU’s Randolph Farm agriculture learning center includes 57 research and instruction ponds, a fish hatchery, an automated fish processing facility and greenhouses with indoor fish tanks.
“The greenhouses have aquaponic systems, where we are raising plants and fish together, primarily tilapia,” says Chris Mullins, College of Agriculture assistant professor and Virginia Cooperative Extension specialist. “Another Extension specialist, Dr. Nicholas Romano, is working with raising marine shrimp indoors.”
Traditionally, Randolph Farm aquaculturists have supported catfish growers. That will continue, Mullins says, but they’re increasing focus on aquaponics, which is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture. Connected by a filtration system, the fish and plants are kept in separate tanks. The fish provide nutrients for the plants through their waste; the plants absorb the fish waste and clean the water, which is then pumped back into the tank.
“There is growing interest in indoor aquaculture systems among producers,” Mullins says. “We’re looking to help growers – especially small growers or those with limited resources – in starting or expanding these systems.”
Consumers are looking for healthier, more sustainable foods such as fish, Mullins adds.
“If you are doing an aquaponics system and you can raise leafy greens, culinary herbs and fish all at the same time, that’s a very sustainable system,” he says.
See more: Virginia Welcomes the Future of Food with Controlled Environment Agriculture Farms
Swimming in Success
More fish are harvested from aquaculture than wild-catch fisheries, says Martin Gardner, president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture (BRA). The 30-year-old company is the world’s largest producer of tilapia using indoor recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).
Based in Martinsville, BRA ships about 14,000 pounds of live tilapia daily to markets in Washington, D.C., New York and Toronto for distribution to secondary markets from Baltimore to Montreal.
“We serve a very specific market niche, primarily Asian-Americans with a cultural preference for live seafood,” Gardner says, adding that RAS advantages are numerous. “We can completely control the environment to create ideal living conditions for our species. We don’t need to use antibiotics or hormones, and this ideal environment also results in very few mortalities.”
Environmental impact is lessened as well. If BRA raised tilapia outdoors, they’d need more than 300 acres of land to produce the same number of fish raised in the 15-acre indoor facility.
Worldwide, the fishing industry has been transitioning from wild-caught to aquaculture for the past 30 years, and Gardner forecasts continued growth.
“As the benefits for indoor fish farms continue to increase and the demand for seafood continues to grow, we will see more companies coming online,” he says. “We see it as the logical evolution of aquaculture.”
See more: Poultry and Eggs Provide a Multibillion-Dollar Direct Impact on Virginia’s Economy
Reeling in a Problem
As an invasive species, blue catfish’s preferred diet of blue crab, striped bass, shad, herring and other endemic fish is contributing to the decline of some of those species. Blue catfish have been found in the Chesapeake Bay and all of its tributaries in Virginia, according to Mike Hutt, executive director of the Virginia Marine Products Board, which promotes the state’s commercial seafood industry.
Fortunately, the blue catfish is a firm, delicate-tasting, white-meat fish suited to a variety of cooking methods. Hutt says domestic and international markets already exist for the 3 million pounds of blue catfish caught every year in Virginia waters.
The new Governor’s Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program will award reimbursable grants of up to $250,000 to support projects to both reduce the numbers of blue catfish and expand the industry. The grant program should help address processors’ capacity and labor issues, Hutt says.
“We have some customers who want the catfish individually quick frozen in retail-ready bags,” he says. “The equipment to do that is costly.”
As consumers hunger for locally obtained fish, Hutt believes the blue catfish market has tremendous potential.
“It can turn into a big industry for our state,” he says.
See more: Virginia Businesses and Farmers Benefit From AFID Grants, From the Valleys to the Shores