By Linda McGurk
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Fish is the new hog – at least if one believes the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA).
The organization is making a new push to promote aquaculture to Hoosier farmers, hoping the sector will create a market for excess soybean meal from biodiesel production. According to Steven Hart, ISA’s director of aquaculture, the industry could be poised for expansion.
“I would say (aquaculture) has large potential in Indiana,” he said.
The ISA is using Ohio as a model for aquaculture expansion. In 1997, the industry in Ohio was about the same size as Indiana’s today, with 20-30 fish-producing farms. After hiring an aquaculture expert, the state’s aquaculture industry grew to 300 permitted operations, and the income from aquaculture now ranks 15th in the state’s agriculture sector.
Indiana has about 60 permitted operations. Half of them are producing fish, but most are small operations run by farmers who sell their fish pond side or to Asian fish markets. A recent market analysis by the ISA suggests there could be significant demand for fish raised in Indiana, not only locally but also from restaurants and wholesalers in neighboring states.
“What surprised me was that even (restaurants in) Chicago and Cincinnati ranked Indiana-branded products very high,” Hart said.
The ISA touts three different fish-production systems: pond culture, cage culture and recirculation culture. Pond culture is the simplest and least expensive system of the three, especially if there’s an existing pond on the property.
A cage system is similar to a pond culture, except the fish are kept in cages, whereas a recirculation system is kept inside. The latter requires the operator to be extremely knowledgeable about the fish species and their diets.
“Whenever you take an animal – whether it’s terrestrial or aquatic – from its natural environment and you put it indoors, you’ve got to learn more about it. You also face more challenges when you do that,” said Paul Brown, a professor of aquaculture at Purdue University.
A recirculation system also requires suitable buildings and highly specialized equipment, which can add up to a sizable initial investment.
“I’ve seen the whole range, from those who pay five to six thousand dollars to get a system and see how it works, to those who spend up to a million dollars,” said Hart. “My personal recommendation is to start small. There’s a bit of a learning curve and what you really need to get started is a knowledge base.”
Brown, who has done aquaculture research on behalf of the ISA since the 1990s, said choosing the right production method is mostly about matching the producer with the natural resources available.
“We’ve got people growing fish in every conceivable production system. They all work and they’re all economical,” he said. “But one of the big problems is that people sometimes try to fight the natural resources they have.”
For example, an operator in Missouri was determined to raise walleye using a huge flow of spring water on his property, even though the groundwater was too cold for that particular species. After suffering economic loss, he eventually converted his operation to raising trout and salmon.
Yellow perch, largemouth bass and hybrid striped bass are considered particularly well suited for Indiana’s temperate climate, and none of those species are currently produced on a large scale in foreign markets.
Research at Purdue has showed that hybrid striped bass can thrive on a diet consisting of 40-45 percent soybean meal, whereas yellow perch do best with no more than 30 percent soybean meal. Tentative results from a study that’s still ongoing suggests that largemouth bass could possibly prosper on a diet containing as much as 60 percent soybean meal, according to Brown.
“They’re eating well, so that’s a good sign. We just don’t know about the weight gains yet,” he said of the largemouth bass study, which will be completed in the next few weeks.