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Currie Fish Farmers Succeeding in Aquaculture

Posted on: Thursday, 2 February 2006, 21:01 CST

By Paul R. Jefferson, Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.

Feb. 1--Aquaculture as an industry knows no bounds, its proponents say, much like the seas it emulates.

But most graduates of groundbreaking fish-farming education programs in the region usually have to look elsewhere for work, said Chad Gray, an aquaculture instructor at Brunswick Community College

Most -- but not all.

Bucking a trend, Kevin Patterson and Rick Stuckman, graduates of UNCW's marine biology program and of BCC's aquaculture program, started Southeast Pond Stocking in Currie in 1998. The aquaculture farm now does business across three states.

"We started our business up slow and gradually built it up over time," Stuckman said.

The aquaculture farm is just off U.S. 421 near N.C. 210, partly hidden behind banks of pine trees.

"We've got about 40 acres of water in 20 different ponds. And each pond has a different type of fish. We cultivate bluegill, channel cats (catfish), largemouth bass, crappie and hybrid stripe bass. We are a specialized industry; we specialize in game fish," he said

Stuckman agreed that as far as fish farming goes, "There are actually not many like ours in the area. Not here close to the coast," he said.

The business employs at least two additional workers, sometimes more during peak seasons, Stuckman said.

"And most of those guys go through the BCC program," he added. "There's a lot more work in game fish."

The work involves feeding the fish daily, checking water temperatures, testing the water and moving the fish into different ponds to further their growth.

Stores and restaurants are some of the customers for the fish-farming operation.

"We load up a truck and cover 70 to 85 percent of the state, and we go into Virginia and in South Carolina," he said.

When not busy shepherding the nine varieties of fish stocks, Stuckman and Patterson serve as consultants to would-be aquaculturists, providing information about pond maintenance to help others properly set up fish cultivating operations.

"We work real close with farmers in Brunswick County," Stuckman said. "We have sort of a cooperative arrangement for using equipment with other fish farmers. We share; it's one of those things you want to do if you're in the business."

The land-based version of fish-farming can be established "just about anywhere" fresh water is available, Gray said.

But Gray said fish farming as a profession is still a rarity in Southeastern North Carolina, despite graduates numbering in the hundreds who've gone through BCC's two-year program. And many of those graduates got their first exposure in the field through South Brunswick High School's aquaculture and fish hatchery program that provides live Southern flounder fingerlings for replenishing fish stock in state estuaries.

Many students also take advantage of the community college's "2 Plus 2" partnership with UNCW that gives BCC aquaculture grads automatic admission to the marine biology program at the university, he said.

"Some go and become research technicians at academic institutions. Some continue on in the field in other ways," Gray said.

Perhaps the biggest impediments to nearby aquaculture farms and facilities are the general decline in farming and the rise in land values, Gray said.

"There's no question that the cost of land has a lot to do with it," Gray said.

Large tracts that could be leased for aquaculture are being developed for commercial and residential use throughout the coastal county region, he said.

Employment in the aquaculture field has traditionally taken graduates far from the region, he said.

Through e-mail, he's kept in touch with a former student who is managing a tropical fish farm in Florida and another who manages a large catfish farm

"There's plenty of work out there. Students just have to be willing to travel a bit," Gray said.

Graduates who stay in the area often take up catfish farming on a small scale, Gray said.

According to the aquaculture division of the state Department of Agriculture, Southeast Pond Stocking holds one of the two state aquaculture licenses in Pender County, along with the Thomkats Fish Farm in Willard, said Matt Parker, an aquaculture economist in the department. One license-holder is in Carolina Beach in New Hanover County, and five licenses have been issued for aquaculture operations in Brunswick County.

That number does not include the BCC curriculum program and the Southern flounder hatchery training program at South Brunswick High School. Not all of the license-holders are active, he said.

The state's aquaculture division lists a host of aquacultural contacts, in-state produce suppliers and ways to obtain aquaculture information and training at its Web site (www.agr.state.nc.us/aquacult).

Parker said the state has issued about 250 state licenses to in-state aquaculturists for cultivating a variety of fish and marine animals in land-based facilities.

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Source: Morning Star

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