Regional Aquaculture Centers: Extension Programs

1. Regional Aquaculture Centers: Extension Programs

2. Regional Aquaculture Centers North Central Northeastern Western Tropical & Subtropical Southern

3. Mission of the RACs To support aquaculture research, development, demonstration, and extension education to enhance viable and profitable U.S. aquaculture which will benefit consumers, producers, service industries, and the American economy.

4. Development of the Centers • 1987-88: Centers organized and began operation • Reauthorization of the RAC Program • 1990, 1996, and 2002 Farm Bills

5. U.S. Foreign Trade in Fishery Products Sources: USDC/NOAA/NMFS Current Fisheries Statistics No. 2001, September 2002

6. Regional Center Appropriations • Authorized at $7.5 million • Initial funding at $3.75 million • Increased to $4 million in 1992 • Budget recision in 2001 of 0.22% ($3,991,200) • Budget of $3.996 million for FY2002 and $4.5 million for FY2003

7. Key Features of the Centers • Projects responsive to industry needs and designed to impact commercial development • Programs organized to take advantage of the best aquaculture science, education skills, and facilities to achieve region-wide cooperation • Projects are peer-reviewed for technical and industrial merit

8. RAC Organizational Structure BOARD OF DIRECTORS ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER INDUSTRY ADVISORY COUNCIL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

9. North Central Regional Aquaculture Center (NCRAC)

10. NCRAC Aquaculture • Eat almost 1 billion pounds/year but produce <2% • Great diversity of species being cultured • Over 1,000 producers; but just a few per state accounting for most of the production • Food fish, baitfish, fish for stocking recreational and ornamental water bodies including fee-fishing operations as well as aquatic plants grown for food, wetland mitigation, and water gardening

11. NCRAC Projects Extension Econ/Marketing Yellow Perch Hybrid Bass Walleye Sunfish Salmonids Crayfish Baitfish Wastes/Effluents Tilapia INAD/NADA Coordinator Aquaculture Drugs White Papers 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 2005 2003 2004

12. NCRAC Projects 8 $521,552 Extension 7.9% 4 $302,904 Econ/Marketing 4.6% 8 $1,433,866 Yellow Perch 21.7% 7 $976,960 Hybrid Bass 14.8% 7 $927,627 Walleye 14.1% 5 $853,788 Sunfish 12.9% 4 $637,742 Salmonids 9.7% 1 $49,677 Crayfish 0.8% 1 $61,973 Baitfish 0.9% 3 $448,300 Wastes/Effluents 6.8% 2 $268,791 Tilapia 4.1% 1 $55,241 INAD/NADA Coordinator 0.8% 3 $36,365 Aquaculture Drugs 0.6% 2 $22,495 White Papers 0.3%

13. NCRAC-Extension • Limited number of extension specialists • Increase number of extension contacts • Networking between all NCRAC communities • Non-tradition approaches • Researchers • Natural resource agencies • Dept. of Agriculture contacts • Other fish farmers • FFA programs

14. Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture (CTSA)

15. The CTSA Region Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Hawaii Republic ofthe MarshallIslands Guam Federated Statesof Micronesia Republicof Belau AmericanSamoa =CTSA

16. CTSA Aquaculture • Finfish • Ornamentals • Marine sponges • Clams • Oysters

18. CTSA-Extension • PRAISE - Pacific Regional Aquaculture Information Service for Education Service program serving the U.S. affiliated Pacific • Web site (http://lama.kcc.hawaii.edu/praise) accessed 5,700 times per month • 24-hour turn-around time

19. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center (SRAC)

20. SRAC Aquaculture • Major species – channel catfish • Other species – ornamentals, baitfish, hybrid striped bass • Alligators • Crawfish

21. SRAC Expenditures - Subject Extension 18% Genetics 1% Marketing and Economics 4% Health 3% Product Quality 18% Nutrition and Feeding 34% Production, Water Quality, and Environment 25%

22. SRAC Extension • Publications, Videos, and Computer Software • A continuing project funded at ~$70 K annually • 170 SRAC fact sheets (on web and CD) • 19 videos • 200+ scientific papers • 200+ scientific presentations • 40+ master’s or doctoral theses

23. Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center (NRAC)

24. NRAC Aquaculture • Characterized by diversity of products • Numerous finfish • Salmon and oysters • Aquatic plants & crustaceans

25. NRAC Expenditures: Subject

26. NRAC - Extension • Training • Extension agents • Leadership of both agents and industry contacts • Publications • Demonstration projects • Workshops • Fish health • Business management • Effluents/nutrition/financing/legal issues • Marketing

27. Western Regional Aquaculture Center (WRAC)

28. WRAC Aquaculture • Diverse • Cold and warm water species • Marine and fresh water species • Finfish, invertebrates, plants • Most significant production oysters and trout

29. 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 WRAC Project Funding Timeline IHNV Control $260,400 over 3 yrs. Sturgeon Broodstock $395,000 over 4 yrs. Pacific Oyster Cross-Breeding $393,300 over 4 yrs. Solids Removal $329,153 over 4 yrs. High Performance Feeds $279,044 over 4 yrs. Disease Interactions $128,975 over 3 yrs. Molluscan Shellfish Ecology $400,000 over 4 yrs. Phosphorous Discharge $202,033 up to 2-4 yrs. Sturgeon Broodstock $100,000 up to 1-2 yrs. Pacific Oyster Cross-Breeding $100,000 up to 1-4 yrs. Recirculation Aquaculture $59,645 up to 1-4 yrs. Sturgeon Caviar $57,000 up to 1-4 yrs.

30. WRAC Project Expenditures by Subject (1987-2002)

31. WRAC-Extension • Integration of extension and research projects • Outreach programs made by both extension and researchers • “rapid response” funds • Workshops participants are from both industry and regulatory agencies

32. AquaNIC(http://aquanic.org) • 8,000 files (publications, photographs, slide sets, videos, directories, etc.) • Links to over 1,000 aquaculture Web sites • 600 links from other Web sites • 5,000 “hits” per month by people from over 80 countries

33. Other Contributions • Scientific contributions • Graduate education • Internet presence • NRAC - http://www.old.umassd.edu/specialprograms/nrac/welcome.html • NCRAC - http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/aquanic/ncrac/ • SRAC - http://www.msstate.edu/dept/srac/ • WRAC - http://www.fish.washington.edu/wrac/ • CTSA - http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/ctsa/ • Bang for the buck • Ingrained