Article published June 26, 2008
Ohio State University fishing for business in Bowling Green
Aquaculture Center will farm 'spotfin shiners'
Ohio State University President Gordon Gee pours fertilizer into a container of algae that will feed small bait fish at OSU's new Bowling Green Aquaculture Center.
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THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
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By MEGHAN GILBERT
BLADE STAFF WRITER
BOWLING GREEN - In a time when people are being urged to buy local and go green, a new research project here is aiming to promote both in the fishing industry.
The Ohio State University's Bowling Green Aquaculture Center at the Agricultural Incubation Center on Middleton Pike opened yesterday to celebrate its work in the new business of farming bait fish.
While fishing is popular in the area with the proximity of Lake Erie, most of the bait fish sold to those local fishermen is trucked in from as far away as Arkansas.
"We have the land, the water resources - why are we not doing it here?" asked Shawn McWhorter, a research associate and aquaculture specialist with OSU's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Mr. McWhorter, a self-identified "fish guy," is studying ways to farm spotfin shiners, seen as a superior bait fish for use in Lake Erie.
In the Bowling Green Aquaculture Center, Mr. McWhorter is breeding those small fish, which grow up to only four inches.In so doing, he is studying their reproductive habits, best food sources, and more.
He hopes to find the best practices to breed healthy bait fish in the most economical way.
Tom Yingling, who owns Woodside Farms, Inc. in Bellevue with his brother John, said working with Mr. McWhorter is an ideal collaboration in this new business field.
"It's a ground-floor industry here and the protocol for production hasn't been established," he said. "We're all learning together."
Mr. Yingling said learning more about the spotfin shiners will be great because those fish are similar to the emerald shiners that are used as bait to catch fish such as yellow perch in Lake Erie.
And if local companies can produce spotfin shiners, native to Ohio's fast-moving freshwater streams, there will be a real market for them among local anglers, he said.
OSU President Gordon Gee, who was present at the ribbon- cutting ceremony to open the center, said it's an example of what the university's extension services aim to do.
"We want to be not only engaged, but we want to be very present," he said.
Expanding on the bait fish industry work, the Bowling Green Aquaculture Center will research recycling the water that the fish live in as a fertilizer for crops.
That method, which is known as aquaponics, takes the water that fish have lived in and filters their waste while maintaining the nutrients, and gives that to plants.
It will be tried at the center with tilapia fish tanks, the water from which will be used to help grow tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and other plants.
Robert Boggs, state agriculture director, said the research center's work is symbolic of the type of collaboration needed to rejuvenate the state.
"All of us know there is a great demand in all parts of Ohio for locally produced food," he said. "If we're going to have a cost-effective food supply in Ohio, we're all going to have to work together."
Contact Meghan Gilbert at:
mgilbert@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.
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