Arizona Arid Lands The University of Aquaculture Fish Production Arizona Association Tucson Arizona __________________________________________________________________________ Vol. IV No 1. A Joint Publication of Aquaculture Activities Nov/Dec 1995 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Published BiMonthly by the Kevin Fitzsimmons, Editor College of Agriculture and ALFP95-4 Phone 520-741-1990 the Arizona Aquaculture FAX 520-573-0852 Association Web Site http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The University of Arizona College of Agriculture Forbes Building, Room 306 Tucson, Az 85721 __________________________________________________________________________ >From the Departing Editor: Three years ago this month, Merle Jensen, the College of Agriculture Assistant Dean for Sponsored Research, an old friend and former colleague, asked me to establish a newsletter on the subject of aquaculture in Arizona. At an organizational meeting at the Maricopa Agricultural Center, its Director, Roy Rauskolb, proposed we avoid the word aquaculture in the newsletter title because it might imply a greater concern with research than production. Thus the name "Arid Lands Fish Production" was invented and we commenced bimonthly publication. Our stories on the State's production, growout, fee-fishing, integrated water use with crop irrigation, high school vocational programs (and, yes, University research) have been well received and reproduced in national and western journals. Also at that newsletter meeting in 1992 was another old friend and former colleague, Kevin Fitzsimmons of the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. In addition to his teaching and research, Kevin recently became the aquaculture specialist for the Co-Operative Extension Service. It is customary at Land Grant schools with a fish farming newsletter for it to be edited by the aquaculture extensionist, if there be one. Now that we do indeed have one, I am pleased to be out of a job and turn over this task to Kevin; certainly there is no one better qualified in the State, and he has my unqualified and continuing support. (I plan to stick around, however. I wouldn't want to miss Merle Jensen's next idea.) Wayne Collins >From the new editor: I would like to take this first opportunity to thank Wayne for doing such a fine job the last three years. His considerable writing skills have made the "Arid Lands Fish Production Newsletter" a pleasure to read and a favorite of the national aquaculture press. Virtually every issue has had one or more articles picked up and reprinted by aquaculture magazines or newspapers with national and international distribution. We all have benefited from this exposure and I hope I can do half as well as Wayne has done in presenting aquaculture here in Arizona to the world. Wayne's contributions to aquaculture go far beyond his efforts with this newsletter. With the next newsletter I will attempt my first profile with the person who has been involved with aquaculture longer than any of us here in Arizona. Wayne should have been one of the first and foremost of the profiles, but modesty prevailed. I will probably need to skim over some of his more "interesting" aquaculture stories, but I'm sure everyone will be interested to learn of his contributions to the industry. Kevin Fitzsimmons Meeting of the Arizona Aquaculture Association The Board of Directors of the AAA met in October at the Grace Inn in Phoenix. This meeting was used by the Board to reorganize and redirect its efforts in support of the industry here in Arizona. Jimmy Joy, President of the Association brought the meeting to order and provided introductions for a couple of new members to the group and reviewed the activities of the Association since the last meeting. With the departure of Dick Young to Florida, the duties of Secretary of the organization were turned over to George Brooks. Jim Warkomski provided a Treasurer's report. Jimmy then opened the meeting to a discussion of the priorities for the Association in the coming months. The most immediate item that was discussed was a presentation of the aquaculture industry at the Arizona State Fair. Paris Mazek and Bill Steinke had been working on putting together a display booth at the fair with a live tank with representative species, a map of Arizona with farm locations and photos, and farm lists for distribution. Several members offered to assist the display with photos, fish and equipment. The longer term issues discussed were developing new markets for Arizona produced fish. Everyone at the meeting felt that the most important market is the Urban Fishing Program. It was agreed that replacing fish imported from out of state with locally produced fish would benefit Arizona aquaculture and reduce the chance for spread of disease and exotics. The producers will work together to reduce their costs and insure that they have sufficient fish to fill the contract themselves or provide cost competitive fish to the winning bidder. Opening the California live market to fish grown in Arizona was another topic of discussion. The restrictions on live tilapia for the Asian markets in LA and San Diego have stymied Arizona farmers for several years. The ban on tilapia varieties grown in Arizona along with difficulties and expenses incurred for inspections at the borders have limited importations. George Brooks reported that his involvement with the survey of varieties present in California had ended. It was not clear if this project was still in progress. Getting the information on exactly which varieties are allowed into California and how to work out a better inspection procedure will be a priority for the Association. Further developing the markets in Arizona is of course one of the primary missions of the Association. The opening of several more fee fishing operations around the state is a bright point. All of these operations use locally grown fish and provide a great opening for producers to market their fish and develop contacts with restaurants and consumers. The publicity generated by the Catfish Institute with nationwide advertising has also helped spur demand. The increasing popularity of tilapia is also showing up with more sales in restaurants and grocery stores. The most important to remember is that with consumption of over 40 million pounds of seafood in the state and Arizona production of only 1 million pounds there is plenty of room for more sales. Arizona High Schools Over a dozen high schools throughout Arizona now have aquaculture programs. The majority are operated by the agriculture departments but almost all have coordinated their programs with the science, math and other departments at their respective schools. The use of aquaculture to teach some of the basic principals of animal husbandry as well as other fields of science is growing nationwide. Aquaculture programs are cost effective and avoid many of the problems encountered when rearing larger domesticated animals, especially in urban schools. Several of these programs have been able to work with local fish farms to provide internships and jobs for students and graduates of these programs. Not only does this improve the school program but it provides well trained employees to the job market here in Arizona and to the rapidly growing industry world-wide. World Wide Web site for Aquaculture in Arizona (Http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua) Aquaculture in Arizona is now featured at a site on the most popular part of the Internet. People anywhere in the world can see photos of Arizona farms, farmers and fish. They can read the back copies of this newsletter, they can get lists of the high schools with aquaculture programs, lists of farms in the state with their phone numbers and species available and read about research and courses available from the University of Arizona. The site also provide links to other sources of aquaculture information. These links include commercial suppliers, other university data bases, employment opportunities, seafood buyers and conference schedules. Information on aquaculture feeds, pond construction and maintenance, algae blooms, fish diseases is all readily available. All of this information is accessed by a simple point and click of a computer mouse. The user does not need to remember complicated addresses, know computer languages or even any other computer programs. The requirements are access to a computer (386 or higher, or Mac) with a modem, Web browser software (usually provided for free) and an account with an Internet provider. The Internet provider can be a national service (CompuServe, America On-Line, Prodigy, etc.) an educational provider, (university, junior college, some high schools) or a local provider (small companies or phone service provider). The schools and local companies are the least expensive ($5-8 per month) the national providers are more expensive ($15-20 per month) but will have less down time and provide the initial software. The only address that you will need to type in is "http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua". You type that address in once and then point and click from there indefinitely. For further information call Kevin Fitzsimmons. Western Regional Aquaculture Center The industry, research and extension committees representing aquaculture in the Western US met in San Francisco October 13, 14 and 15 to discuss aquaculture industry priorities and how research can address those topics. Arizona was represented by Craig Springer (industry committee), Kevin Fitzsimmons (extension committee) and Merle Jensen (Chairman of the WRAC Board of Directors), Don Lightner (research committee) was unable to attend. The WRAC group approved funding for research being conducted at the University of Arizona, in conjunction with New Mexico State and UC Davis, on testing and improving methods for removing solids from aquaculture effluents. This is the first long term aquaculture research project conducted in Arizona to be supported by the WRAC. The WRAC did support the aquaculture constraints survey that many of you contributed to last year. That survey identified the disposal of aquaculture effluents as one of the priority areas for research, which was echoed by the industry committee at the San Francisco meeting. This research will provide information for producers on different filtration systems and how best to reduce wastes in effluent water. Several filters have already been installed at the University and the analytical equipment has been purchased which will upgrade the capabilities of the aquaculture research staff. One of the other priority areas identified was the use of methyltestosterone for sex-reversal of tilapia. Although we were not able to get the WRAC to provide any funds to the MT-INAD research effort, the WRAC did commit $5,000 to the National Coordinating Office for INAD's. Rosalie Schnick is that coordinator and she is assisting all of the aquaculture INAD's and working with (against?) the FDA to try to move these INAD's forward to make more of these compounds available to the aquaculture producers. Next Meeting of AAA Board of Directors The next meeting of the Board will be hosted by Bill Steinke scheduled for Monday Nov. 6 at 4:00 at the Sweetwater Farm. A fish fry and tour will be held afterwards. Please contact Bill to RSVP for the fish fry.