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Projects Reaching a Global Scale
UWSP-Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility
Fall Newsletter 2017
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1. Global Impact Partnerships
 Superior Fresh, LLC. is the world's largest cold water aquaponics facility, located in Northfield, WI. At the end of August, Governor Walker and over 200 attendees supported the company at their grand opening event. Superior Fresh is a model facility, utilizing state of the art equipment and technology to create sustainable production of Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout and various greens. They will supply about 160,000 pounds of fish annually and 5,000 pounds of greens daily (amounting to around 16,000 heads of lettuce each day!). Part of Ashley Furniture, Superior Fresh is a true Wisconsin company and has officially partnered with UW-Stevens Point NADF for technical assistance, demonstration and cold water species expertise to advance their facility and operations. UW-Stevens Point is also partnering to provide interns, technicians and further support staff to the company.
Photos:
Cover- Patty Munsell, Riverence, LLC. (on right) holds up a large male Atlantic salmon to show Nikola Garber, Deputy Director for National Sea Grant, (on left) and her daughter, Lily (in middle).
Top- Partners of Superior Fresh stand together at Grand Opening. Groups represented in the photo include UWSP NADF staff and director, UW-Stevens Point, The Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute, and Superior Fresh staff.
Middle-Wisconsin's Governor Walker (on right) on tour given by Brandon Gottsacker, COO of Superior Fresh and UWSP graduate (on left) during the company's grand opening.
Riverence, LLC. has partnered with UWSP NADF to create a new broodstock of Cascade strain Atlantic salmon. This strain is showing tremendous potential when raised in freshwater reuse systems, some fish growing as much as 10lbs/year. This Washington company is dedicated to creating a new broodstock of this specific strain to supply the food fish industry to raise Atlantics sustainably in controlled, land based systems which protects the environment as well as wild populations of fish.
For three years, Riverence has been working with UWSP NADF to harvest eggs from the current broodstock reared at UWSP NADF. Recently, on October 11th, this broodstock has successfully spawned again for the third consecutive year (photo above). The eggs are then sent to Washington to continue the company's broodstock program. Tentatively, in 2018, Riverence will be the only company in the U.S. to commercially supply eyed Atlantic salmon eggs to the industry, starting with Wisconsin farmers like Superior Fresh, LLC.
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2. State-wide to International Recognition
Over the past few months, UWSP NADF has been toured and recognized by state wide agencies and international groups ranging from 30-50 people per tour. These groups included state wide Wisconsin DNR, attendees of the International Corregonid Symposium, and Wisconsin Agriculture Educators.
50 attendees of the International Corregonid Symposium toured the UWSP NADF. Various countries were represented on the tour including Russia, France, Germany and Finland. UWSP NADF lake herring research was highlighted at the symposium event which was held in Bayfield, Wisconsin. UWSP NADF Manager, Greg Fischer, presented to nearly 200 attendees from around the world at the symposium (photo above).
The Ag Educators tour was part of a WI DPI Inservice meeting. Sandy Naas, Ashland Ag Educator who works closely with UWSP NADF, organized a hands on tour of the facility for the teachers as part of the meeting. Educators learned about aquaculture and aquaponics for STEM education, classroom activities and importance for workforce development. One comment an educator made to Mrs. Naas regarding the event:
“In my thirty five years of teaching, you need to know this was one of the very best I have attended. The folks at the aquaculture center were fantastic. It is great that you have built a working relationship with this group of people”.
Photos:
Top: Wisconsin Agriculture Teachers meet in front of UWSP NADF for the tour.
Middle: UWSP NADF Manager, Greg Fischer presents lake herring research at the International Corregonid Symposium in Bayfield, Wisconsin.
Bottom: UWSP NADF Outreach Specialist, Emma Wiermaa shares an aquaculture classroom activity with the educators.
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3. International Cross Training & Workshops
One of the major bottlenecks to the advancement of the aquaculture industry today is an experienced and skilled workforce. UWSP NADF offers various trainings and learning opportunities for partners and collaborators. This summer, the UWSP NADF offered a pond culture workshop (photo above) and also an international cross training opportunity.
The facility welcomed Soren Holm, Factory Manager of Aquapri, a Denmark company which specializes in commercial production of European Pike Perch. Soren traveled to the U.S. for the first time to train alongside UWSP NADF staff to learn feed training techniques and management practices of intensively reared walleye and saugeye. Photo below shows Soren Holm (left) working alongside UWSP NADF Technician Jared Neibauer (right) in the facility's larval walleye room.
Soren shares his experience:
"I had some really interesting and exciting days at NADF, where I got an idea of how to breed walleye in a recirculated system. Although the walleye and the pike perch are similar to each other they are bred in a very different way. One of the things is the weaning process of walleye fry with dry food. The process is quite different to how we have done this with the pike perch. However, we have decided to test the walleye method with our next batch of larvae in August. I have 10 years of experience with the breeding of pike perch, but I think you can always learn something new when you come out and visit other facilities like NADF"
-Soren Holm
Factory Manager Aquapri
Training Opportunities...
The UWSP NADF also promotes a variety of training opportunities through workshops and events. Through a Workforce Education and Training Grant, funded by Sea Grant, UWSP NADF and Lac du Flambeau Tribal Hatchery presented two pond culture hands on workshops this summer, one at each facility. The workshops were an interactive way to learn about pond culture in Wisconsin, highlighting best management practices and techniques. The workshops also included an aeration demonstration, fish health demonstration and online video modules.
Photos: Top-Attendees of the second Pond Culture Workshop in September at Lac du Flambeau tribal hatchery pose for a photo with Bob Robinson of Kasco Marine, during a pond aeration demonstration.
Middle- Soren Holm, Manager of Aquipri (left) working alongside UWSP NADF Technician Jared Neibauer (right) in the facility's larval walleye room.
Bottom- Attendees of the pond culture workshop learning about fish health through a demonstration from Dr. Bob Smith, Clayton Veterinary Care.
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4. Ground Breaking Applied Research
 UWSP NADF is continuing the second year of a ground breaking research project, collaboration with Michigan State University, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and Michigan DNR to determine the effects of sub lethal sea lamprey parasitism on lake trout.
It is estimated that 45-75% of lake trout survive a sea lamprey parasitism event. The sub-lethal physiological effects of sea lamprey parasitism on their hosts are likely to have significant population and management implications. Yet we currently know little about how fish respond to sub-lethal parasitism events or how these events alter growth, body condition or reproduction. Because of this gap in knowledge, it is likely that we are underestimating the damage caused by sea lamprey parasitism on lake trout populations.
Tyler Firkus, Michigan State Doctoral Candidate, is gathering the data on this project for the second year at UWSP NADF. The first year, Firkus was able to gather initial data on both lean and siscowet broodstock housed at UWSP NADF prior to the parasitism event, now this year he will be gathering data on the lake trout post parasitism regarding reproductive and immune effects.
Photos: Top-Lake trout broodstock with sea lamprey attached. This is a controlled, sublethal parasitism event where the lamprey is removed after several days of attachment and the lake trout is observed effects of parasitism on immune response and future fecundity. This data will be most useful for determining impacts of sea lamprey on wild lake trout populations.
Middle- Mouth part of a sea lamprey.
Bottom-Tyler Firkus, (on right) holds up a sea lamprey to explain the project to Nikola Garber, Deputy Director of the National Sea Grant College Program (on left) and Jim Hurley, Director of Wisconsin Sea Grant (in middle) during a tour of UWSP NADF.
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