26 SEPTEMBER 2012 Paddlefish caviar ready for packaging. Ovary of a sexually mature paddlefish. Caviar was sold for $704 per kg wholesale and $880 per kg retail. About half of the caviar was used for customer taste sampling during product marketing. Potential paddlefish caviar markets are located in the Midwestern United States. A list of some processing expenses for the project is provided in Table 2 (page 8). Sales generated from paddlefish products are provided in Table 3 (page 8). Constraints and Outlook The original intent of the project was to sell paddlefish after three or four growing seasons. Marketing and processing difficulties delayed paddlefish harvest for at least an additional three years, which likely reduced survival. Difficult logistics and associated inefficiencies compromised the economics of this project. Hundreds of miles separated where fish were grown in western Kentucky to where they were held in northern Kentucky and then to where they were processed in central Kentucky. Efforts to find suitable holding and processing facilities in more practical locations were unsuccessful. These large travel distances increased transportation and labor costs. The two main problems associated with catfish and paddlefish polyculture are the time and labor required to sort the two species at harvest and poor paddlefish survival. The labor cost associated with removing large paddlefish from a seine during catfish harvest may negate potential profit of adding another species. There is uncertainty in meeting the increase in paddlefish product demand and volume while also remaining profitable. Catfish ponds may best serve as a paddlefish nursery. Juvenile paddlefish filter-feed on abundant zooplankton in fertile catfish ponds and grow quickly (Mims and Shelton 2005). Paddlefish could be raised for one or two growing seasons until they reach a large juvenile size. These fish would then be suitable for stocking into larger bodies of water, such as lakes or reservoirs, for grow-out. Notes 1 Aquaculture Cooperative Extension Program, Kentucky State University, Graves County Extension Office, 251 W. Housman Street, Mayfield, KY 42066; fwynne@email. uky.edu Acknowledgments Ms. Renee Koerner of Big Fish Farms LLC of Bellevue, Kentucky provided paddlefish processing and marketing information. Dr. John Murdock of Ponderosa Farms, Murray, Kentucky provided the catfish ponds and fish harvest information. Kentucky State University Division of Aquaculture provided project funding. References Burke, J. S. and D. R. Bayne. 1986. Impact of paddlefish on plankton and water quality of catfish ponds. Progressive Fish-Culturist 48:177-183. Decker, A. E., A. D. Crum, S. D. Mims and J. H. Tidwell 1991. Processing yields and composition of paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), a potential aquaculture species. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 39:686-688. Mims, S. D. and W.L. Shelton. 2005. Paddlefish. American Fisheries Society Symposium 46:227-249. Tidwell, J. H. and S. D. Mims. 1990. Survival of paddlefish fingerlings stocked with large channel catfish. Progressive Fish-Culturist 52:273274. Channel catfish harvest from a catfish-paddlefish polyculture pond.
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