By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

OKEMOS, Mich. — The prospects for a viable fish farming industry in Michigan all depend on to whom one talks.

For Russ Allen, president of the Michigan Aquaculture Assoc., what the state really needs is an example of a large operation that will serve as a model. For John Nelski, a fish farmer in North Muskegon, government regulation makes fish farming difficult and, sometimes, impossible.

Allen, a shrimp farmer in Okemos, has been working on developing a proprietary system for raising shrimp indoors for years and he’s a little cagey about the details. There are plenty of competitors who would like to know the details of the system he’s working on.

He said the biggest obstacle to the growth of fish farming is the lack of a processing facility. What he’s trying to do with his shrimp operation would include a processing facility and might be useful for fish as well, he stated. According to Nancy Frank, an assistant state veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, there are only 50 licensed aquaculture facilities in Michigan. Some that used to be here have gone out of business.

“We certainly do think there’s a potential for growth, but there are a lot of government regulations,” Frank said. “It would be nice if there were more opportunities for processing the fish in Michigan.”
According to Allen, a processing facility is key because one can sell only so many fish to lake associations and fee for fishing operations. He said the Indiana Soybean Assoc. has been doing a great job marketing aquaculture in Indiana. He believes everyone in Michigan, especially state legislators, needs to learn more about fish farming and its potential.

“We’re trying to show everyone that it’s not just talk, that we can really do it,” Allen said.

Nelski isn’t so sure. He raises about 200,000 trout each year but said government at the state and federal levels can sometimes be extremely heavy-handed. Two years ago the USDA prevented him from shipping orders out of state because of an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic septicemia.

“The biggest issue is government. The feds can shut you down anytime they want,” Nelski recalled bitterly. “I had $15,000 worth of orders and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. That was two years ago and I still never got a notice from the USDA. It was a thin winter, I’ll tell you.”

Nelski also complained about the rising cost of having his fish tested each year, which he said costs him about $2,500.

He said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is pressuring him to get more fish tested than what is standard for the industry and that it will make the testing even more expensive.
He painted a picture of the DNR as little more than a bureaucratic dictatorship bent on putting him out of business.

“Some of the hierarchy people I don’t have much good to say about,” Nelski said of the DNR’s fisheries division.

Dan Vogler, owner of Harrietta Hills Trout Farm in Cadillac, runs the largest privately owned hatchery in the state, with as many as 750,000 mostly rainbow trout raised each year.

There are times, Vogler says, when he feels the same way Nelski does, but overall he’s not as pessimistic.

He believes that although “the way we regulate fish facilities is draconian and backwards,” the main obstacle to growth of the fish farming industry in Michigan is water discharge issues, citing standards and lack of capital.

“The catch-22 for aquaculture in Michigan has existed for quite some time,” Vogler said. “I’m not going to increase my production in the hopes that in two years there will be a processor.”

At the same time, he said, no one is going to build a processing facility without there being enough fish to process to make things profitable.

Vogler and Allen are hoping their efforts through the Michigan Aquaculture Assoc. will help convince lawmakers and others that aquaculture can work in Michigan on a large scale.

“There are places where aquaculture is not obscure, is not an oddity,” Vogler said. He pointed to Mississippi and Alabama as two such places. He also stated that worldwide aquaculture is growing by leaps and bounds. “I think the opportunity is here.”