An educated workforce for aquaculture requires many steps in the educational process, but in areas such as the Midwest where aquaculture is less common, we also need to create a mindset for aquaculture. Aquatic farming, like any farming is labor intensive, so the first step is to find individuals who want to farm. Current trends suggest young people in general are not interested in taking up farming, and a quaculture also does not seem to attract large numbers of youth. Where we do see a lot of interest is in aquaponics. Aquaponics mixes traditional aquaculture with hydroponics and may be the best path forward to have an educated workforce. In developing a workforce, we need to move aquaponics from the backyard and onto campus. We also need to elevate the study from being considered a hobby interest to that of an integrated science requiring an understanding of STEM at the university level. However, it is difficult to convince universities to introduce new curricula without demonstrating a market need.
We assessed the level of aquaculture existing in high schools and mapped the locations of the schools as well as extension services and successful aquaculture businesses . www.ncrac-yea.org
We also incentivized interest from high school students through a competition called the Aquaculture Challenge. Our first round of the competition revealed that students quickly surpassed their teachers’ knowledge of aquaculture, so we developed and hosted workshops for the teachers to better prepare them to mentor their students.
We will share the insights gained from our grant activities, as well as efforts to instill a campus culture of aquaculture at Lake Superior State University. The project started with aquaponics about ten years ago, but has advanced quickly in the past two years . The students have established an official aquaculture club, maintain a hoophouse and several aquaponics demonstration systems, and are now a student subunit of the USAS.
We propose aquaponics as an educational model to inspire youth to learn about aquaculture. Aquaponics requires a STEM education which provides the basic skills and knowledge needed for entering the aquaculture industry. As more youth are attracted to the aquaculture industry, we are confident that the educational supply lines will expand.