UF Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (FAS)

University of Florida

Gulf of Mexico sturgeon are being cultured and raised at the UF's hatchery facility. An aquaculture feasibility study compared growth rates of sturgeon raised in spring-fed tanks with those raised in recirculation tanks.

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Florida's underwater farms

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

Aquaculture is big business in Florida, raising both fish and aquatic plants. Not unlike its counterparts in above-ground farming (Frank Chapman, Ph.D., Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida)...

"Aquaculture is agriculture... The only difference is that we are culturing organisms in the water instead of land."

Frank Chapman researcher the underwater harvests at the University of Florida...

"In Florida, the most distinct and most valuable of the crops is the actual tropical fish or aquarium fish like the Guppies or Swordtails that many children have in their homes."

While aquarium fish are the biggest of Florida's underwater crops, there's an edible harvest as well...

"Clams are very big in Florida. They have been a recent boom during the last five years. And of course then the traditional Catfish in the Panhandle of Florida."

And while aquaculture is big business, it is not necessarily undertaken by big businesses...

"Actually a Mom and Pop operation, traditionally only a few acres, averaging five acres at the most, in which they have small ponds... sixty feet by twenty feet."

For more information visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Eco-friendly aquaculture

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

In a time when there's great concern about what's being dumped in our water or our soil, some are pointing to aquaculture as a cleaner farming solution. That's in part, because so much of growing fish and aquatic plants is just... natural (Frank Chapman, Ph.D., Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida).

"Pretty much all the production is done with very limited chemical inputs and so forth."

Frank Chapman studies fisheries and aquatic sciences...

"You have very natural types of feeds. The feeds are primarily fish meal or soybean meal. The effluent coming off some of these facilities in Florida is minimal. It's usually within their own property. So actually, it's pretty benign."

And he says, not only is feeding cleaner in aquaculture... it's more efficient...

"To produce... a pound of cattle meat, it would take about eight pounds of feed. To produce pigs, it would be about four pounds (of feed) for every pound (of meat). Chickens -- which are the most efficient animals -- it's about two to three (pounds of feed) per pound (of meat). And in fish, it's very close or lower than chickens. Usually it's one to two."

For more information visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Better control of fish farms

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

As biologists in Florida trace the blame for exotic plants and animals that've found their way into the state and choked out native species, some of their fingers are pointed at Florida's aquaculture industry, one of the world's largest producers of tropical fish... But some say that exotic threat is being mitigated (Frank Chapman, Ph.D., Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida)...

"We are in a new century. And we are trying to do farming in a much more controlled environment. Just like agriculture... we've got to control the environment because the animals will not respond well otherwise."

Frank Chapman studies fisheries and aquatic sciences at the University of Florida...

"So actually what you're seeing is the reduction of farms is taking place. We're going from ponds -- we're staying away from ponds -- and we're going now indoors, in which there is no effluent out of the facility. So even the concern of exotics is not as real as it used to be just a few decades ago."

Those who fight the exotics in Florida's wildlands say many of the pesky creatures started out in fish farms but they escape into the wild and flourish at the expense of native plants and animals...

"Right now, everything is contained in the farm. And the possibility of escapement is quite reduced."

For more information visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Making a better fish

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

The bulk of Florida's aquaculture industry -- growing underwater plants and animals -- is based on tropical fish for aquariums. But the sector that raises edible crops is growing. And Frank Chapman who studies fisheries and aquaculture says that growth will take a load off of fish in the wild (Frank Chapman, Ph.D., Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida)...

"If you think about it, we are actually hunting still. Fishing is hunting and humans haven't hunted for the last 4,000 years. And we're still doing that in the oceans."

He says part of the process toward farming more fish will come as the fish are improved...

"Most of them are wild, so they have not been domesticated. So in the process of domestication, we are beginning now to improve and to define what are the traits that we want. Better meat? Or a bigger dressage percentage? Or higher number of eggs?"

Growing a better fish crop will draw on lessons learned by aboveground farmers...

"We have a lot to learn from the chicken industry, from the dairies and so forth. So actually in a way we don't have to go through that long, arduous road that they had to. We can actually take now a lot of -- not shortcuts -- but we have a better understanding of how these systems work."

For more information visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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The future of underwater farming

There's money to be made in fish farming. Florida's aquaculture industry is nowhere near as large as other states in the nation, but it is more diverse and is certainly a leader in tropical fish for aquariums (Frank Chapman, Ph.D., Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida).

"About 250 farms as a whole. Primarily dominated by the tropical fish. They probably make now around 150 (M) million dollars.

Frank Chapman studies aquaculture for the University of Florida. He says the state's production would shift more toward edible fish... if the annual demand were greater...

"Unfortunately in the United States, we only eat around 15 to 16 pounds of seafood products (annually). Which is actually very low, because if you compare it to most of the world... you talk about Asia for example, they can consume 100 to 150 pounds."

And while not on par with fish-eaters in Asia, Floridians have an annual pounds-of-fish-per person consumption that is higher than most...

"In Florida, it's about 30 (pounds of seafood consumed per person per year), so our Florida population actually loves to eat seafood, so it's almost double that of the rest of the nation. So indeed, that alone is an increasing pressure to look more at aquaculture."

For more information visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.