By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

PIKETON, Ohio — The aquaculture program at The Ohio State University’s South Center at Piketon is going strong at a time when many such programs across the nation are struggling.

The Ohio Aquaculture Research and Development Integration Program (OARDIP) will receive about $580,000 in federal funding for fiscal year 2009. This will support Ohio’s $6 million aquaculture industry through research and extension outreach.

“We have established five long-term programs with previous support of federal funds,” said DR. Han-Ping Wang, director of OARDIP.

The Ohio Genetic Improvement of Farmed fish traits (O’GIFT), the major program, is striving to genetically improve yellow perch, bluegill and largemouth bass, the three top aquaculture fish in the Midwest, Wang said. Two thousand genetically superior broodfish were selected as the base breeding population for this long-term program.

Two improved lines of perch have been created and distributed to farmers and a research facility for initial tests. Current data shows the improved lines grow 28-42 percent faster than the unimproved lines. The O’GIFT program is expected to increase aquaculture production and efficiency of perch and bluegill by 35-50 percent by developing genetically improved broodstocks, Wang said.

The second program is the Bowling Green Aquaculture Program. Three low-cost commercially available recirculating aquaculture systems have been tested there.

“We are developing the technology for out-of-season spawning of the spot fin shiner (baitfish). Baitfish has a big impact in Ohio, and most people are importing the baitfish from the southern states,” Wang said.

The Fish Production Improvement Program is the third applied research program he mentioned. This involves new pond fertilization regimens for yellow perch production, which has led to a 30 percent increase in the number of perch juveniles and has been put to use on several commercial farms.

“Another program, we call the Fish Muscle Growth and Nutrition Program,” Wang said. “We are investigating how the muscle and nutrition relate to the fish growth.” New information from muscle studies will assist with selection of faster growing strains.

“In order to distribute the results of these research programs to the farmers, we established the Aquaculture Technology Transfer Program,” he said. Transferring the research results to farmers enhances the return on investment of federal dollars.

Obviously, results don’t happen overnight. Ohio GIFT is a long-term program, Wang said. Federal support will help keep it sustainable and will allow the program to achieve its final goals. One technological breakthrough has been the establishment of effective genetic markers to trace the origin of bred fish.

“For more than 30 years the fish farmers have been breeding fish without any genetic control,” he said. “The result is a degradation of genetic diversity. The fish farmers are breeding their own fish – sisters, brother, cousins.

“So, we are using genetic markers to trace the origin of the families. We never put sisters or brothers or cousins together. Long-term, by selective breeding, we will get better, faster growing fish for farmers. This kind of work is a priority of USDA.”

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing segments in agriculture, Wang said. Local, farm-raised fish are superior to imports because they are fresher and thus safer, he added.

National Agriculture Statistics Service data report that Ohio aquaculture value has increased 106 percent in recent years, from $3.2 million in 2005 to $6.6 million in sales in 2007. These established programs have contributed significant impacts toward this growth and represent a highly positive return on the federal investment for OARDIP.