The Minnesota aquaculture industry and the 2025 Minnesota Aquaculture Plan have indicated a need to educate and develop a workforce to help expand the state’s budding industry. Minnesota Sea Grant is attempting to fill this need by introducing interested students and potential farmers to the concept of aquaculture through the establishment of an aquaculture training, demonstration and research facility. The Minnesota Sea Grant Aquaculture Lab (MNSG AL) was founded in 2022 on the University of Minnesota campus to support applied research and extension in aquaculture. The lab includes facilities for both flow through and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and greenhouse space for aquaponic systems. Currently, with funding from the National Sea Grant Office and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, work in the MNSG AL focuses on the production of Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) for food. The lab is the only source of biosecure fingerlings in Minnesota for current and prospective farmers. In addition, we started indoor rearing of Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas), a popular bait fish important to recreational fishing in Minnesota that is in short supply.
A focus area for the lab is to create workforce development opportunities for high school students, undergraduates, and others. The lab offers a training program that focuses on fish husbandry skills (e.g., feeding, water quality, fish handling, etc.), soft skills (e.g., teamwork, professionalism, problem-solving, etc.) and extension (e.g., designing mini-aquaponic systems for classrooms). Interns gain hands-on experience throughout the entire life cycle of Yellow Perch from strip spawning and/or collecting egg skeins from ponds through larval culture, grow-out, and harvest. Since 2021, 14 high school and undergraduate students and four post-undergraduate or post-master’s degree staff have worked in the MNSG AL to gain training and experience in aquaculture.
The MNSG AL further contributes to workforce development by generating products needed by the aquaculture industry. Biosecure Yellow Perch fingerlings produced in the lab are offered to current or prospective farmers so they can learn how to rear this species. One of our collaborators, the Women’s Environmental Institute, is rearing over 2,000 of these fingerlings and has developed their own training program for staff. The Institute also conducts a formal eight-week aquaponic class for prospective producers. We have intentionally developed the MNSG AL as more than just a research facility. We emphasize applied research and demonstration systems that producers can take directly to their farms, offer hands-on training to support the future aquaculture workforce, and provide tours to the public to increase aquaculture literacy more broadly.