STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) — A University of Wisconsin Stevens Point project is getting one of five new Regents Scholars grants. Biology Professor Christopher Hartleb will receive a $50,000 grant for an aquaponics research project with two private-sector partners.
UW Stevens Point works with two private firms to operate two separate research sites. The Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility near Bayfield works closely with Northside Enterprises. The new Aquaponics Innovation Center is being built at Nelson and Pade, Inc.® facility in Montello, Wisconsin.
Hartleb says interest in aquaponics is growing for very good reasons. “Aquaponics is when you raise fish and plants in a total soil-less system, so it’s all based on water, so the fish and the plants are both growing in the water, and it’s a very sustainable system because what you are doing is you’re feeding the fish regular fish food. They produce waste, which is actually carried in the water as nutrients to the plants. The plants utilize those nutrients and then return cleaner water back to the fish again.”
The grant funding will be split between the two projects. Hartleb says he will be working with students to develop the food products more people want to buy. “Traditionally, they’ve been using a fish called Tilapia, which has become more popular and you see it at restaurants. They use it because it’s a very hardy fish. It doesn’t matter if the water quality gets poor, they still do fine, but there’s a limited market for them, so part of the project I’ll be working on is actually looking at more local fish people like to eat, such as walleye, and trying to raise them in aquaponics, which is something nobody’s ever done.”
The new Aquaponics Innovation Center project in Montello is nearly ready to open this spring. “It’s going to be the first aquaponics innovation center in the U.S., and the idea behind it is to diversify crops, both with the fish and the plants, so they are more tailored to what locally we like to eat, but also to the colder conditions we tend to have in Wisconsin.”
The challenge for Hartleb and the researchers is making a aquaponics system that can grow desired fish and plants rapidly and in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner. “Fish are either warm water, cool water, or cold water. If you have a warm water like tilapia, essentially you can raise most plants because they’re used to summer conditions. When you go into something like a walleye or a yellow perch, or even a bluegill, you’re getting into cool water fish, and therefore, you kind of lose. The plants either won’t grow, or they just grow very slowly, and if they grow slowly, then an aquaponics business isn’t going to turn a profit very quickly.”
Aquaculture, or fish farming, is the fastest growing sector of food production in the country, increasing at an annual rate of 15 percent in the last 20 years. Aquaponics expands upon the science to raise both fish and plants. UWSP’s research establishes what works well, which leads to manuals and procedures businesses can use to grow new markets and create new jobs.
The Regent Scholar program was developed and designed to encourage cutting-edge undergraduate research projects that have the potential to lead to job creation and foster entrepreneurship. The awards will be given February 5th in Madison.
(Listen to our interview with Biology Professor Christopher Hartleb on our website, here.)
