Wisconsin’s aquaculture industry needs help — literally.
The aquaculture industry is facing a major staffing shortage. Researchers from UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and UW-Stevens Point are tackling this challenge from all angles. With support from the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, they are partnering with commercial fish farms, K-12 schools and universities statewide to create aquaculture experiences for high school and undergraduate students.
“This project was born out of a needs assessment Wisconsin Sea Grant conducted,” says Sharon Moen, the food-fish outreach coordinator at Wisconsin Sea Grant and principal investigator on the project. “One of the main challenges fish farmers reported was a sparce to non-existent workforce.”
Lack of Staff Challenges
The largest fish farms in Wisconsin face difficulty hiring and keeping qualified staff in rural areas. In addition, more dairy farms are repurposing barns and silos into aquaculture and aquaponic systems to supplement their incomes.
“The dairy industry has collapsed in such a big way that dairy farmers are trying to save their farms by raising different types of high-value fish,” Moen says.
A factor in attracting staff may be misconceptions. Fish farming, as it’s sometimes called, has gotten a bad rap due to harmful practices of fish farms in oceans that use net pens and pollute the waters with waste.
Wisconsin, however, is highly regulated regarding water usage and effluent, says Emma Hauser, aquaculture outreach specialist for the UW-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility. Fish farming in Wisconsin is also highly diverse, from ponds to flow-through systems to recirculating systems. Some producers are also utilizing aquaponics, a water reuse process through which the fish waste naturally fertilizes the plants. The plants then purify the water for the fish. Extra waste is put onto fields as part of regenerative farming practices.
“In the United States, aquaculture is the most highly regulated form of protein you can get, but there’s a slew of misconceptions,” Hauser says. “I think that contributes to the workforce development challenges.”
Pathways to Jobs
The collaborative team wants to combat misperceptions and create job pathways for young people. Much of this is being done through K-12 outreach and working directly with teachers across the state. The emphasis is on ensuring students are trained properly in caring for fish.
“Part of my job supports aquaculture in the classroom, helping schools set up their systems and teaching them how to maintain them,” Hauser says. “We also donate fish and provide technical assistance when the students run into problems.”
The team also hopes to increase the number of Wisconsin students who compete in the Aquaculture Challenge, an annual competition held by Lake Superior State University and Michigan Sea Grant. Teams of high school students create their own small scale aquaponics system. Registration runs Oct. 31-Jan. 10.
The grant also offers high school and undergraduate students valuable hands-on research experience in Dong Fang Deng’s fish labs at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences. Under Deng’s mentorship, students learn essential fish culture techniques, including feed preparation, fish feeding, water quality monitoring, and sample collection to address specific project questions. They collaborate with graduate students to conduct research on various fish species, such as yellow perch, lake sturgeon, and walleye, and explore how changes in nutrition and water quality impact fish performance.
“The goal is for students to acquire basic skills and understand the challenges of aquaculture,” Deng says. “I hope these internships inspire them and offer a glimpse into lab work and research, highlighting how we can support the industry. To achieve sustainability, the aquaculture sector needs skilled workforce and innovative technologies.”
Benefits to Students
Pranil Panda, a graduate of New Berlin Eisenhower High School, spent two summers working in Deng’s lab. In 2023, he presented his research on optimal feed rates for walleye fingerlings at the 2024 Wisconsin and Minnesota Aquaculture Conference in Red Cliff, Wisc. This was his first conference, and he won an award for Best Oral Presentation. Currently, he is a freshman at UW-Madison, where he plans to declare a double major in biology and zoology.
“Getting to present my research at a major conference was an amazing experience. I learned a lot about the current state of aquaculture, improved my public speaking skills, and got to see the collaborative work between farmers, scientists, and government employees,” Panda says. “Doing all this has really inspired me to pursue a career in science.”
Charlotte Davis, a current senior at New Berlin Eisenhower High School, says shadowing undergraduates was a unique learning experience that allowed her to explore her interest in aquaculture.
“I was super happy with the amount that I was included in the lab. I was given room to grow and learn,” she says. “I loved that I was able to help collaborate with the undergraduates to do tasks that I have never done before!”
As part of the grant, students visit fish farms and hatcheries. These trips have included visits to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Wild Rose Hatchery, Rushing Waters Fisheries, and PortFish, a nonprofit aquaponics facility.
Next year, the team plans to work with farmers and business to offer 10-week hands-on experiences to undergraduates. Participants would get real-world career training and mentorship. They are also working to increase collaborations with other universities, including Alverno College and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, to provide cross-training opportunities.
Inspiring young people to consider careers in aquaculture is part of a broader movement toward developing more sustainable food sources.
“This isn’t just talked about in Wisconsin,” Hauser says, “There are also national efforts to incorporate aquaculture into the classroom and curriculum, connecting with students at an earlier age.”