Director: Gary Thorgaard and Ken Cain
Contact: Paul Wheeler at 509-335-1526 or pwheeler@wsu.edu at WSU and
Scott Williams at 208-885-5706 or scottrw@uidaho.edu
1. Services and Staffing:
The
aquaculture core is established to insure proper and
consistent handling and rearing of the animals among
the projects. The primary species being reared is
rainbow trout, but the UI facilities also have
capabilities for rearing warmwater fishes. The
aquaculture core is composed of three parts. The
Washington State University facility, the part of the
core which is funded by the CRB, includes a number of
recirculating systems which can accommodate small-scale
laboratory experiments. This facility is also involved
in propagating several clonal rainbow trout lines for
research purposes. This part of the core is staffed by
Paul Wheeler with oversight provided by Gary Thorgaard.
The second and third components are at the University
of Idaho. The second component consists of a
recirculating facility on the Moscow campus which is
primarily used for short-term rearing of experimental
fishes by U of I researchers. This component is being
developed with support of the UI Aquaculture Research
Institute and is currently staffed with a full-time
hatchery manager (Scott Williams). The third component
of the aquaculture core is located at the Hagerman
research station of the University of Idaho and is used
to support broodstock rearing and the more long-term,
applied experiments. The oversight for the U of I parts
of the core is provided by Ken Cain. Ron Hardy, a CRB
member, is director of the UI Aquaculture Research
Institute and is based at the Hagerman research
station.
2. Resources:
WSU - Different
sized tanks are available in different recirculating
systems to maximize efficiency and usefulness. Since
each unit is a closed system, the experiments of
individual investigators will not be compromised by
neighboring projects. The advantage of this component
is its proximity to the research laboratories and its
support of the more technical projects, especially
those requiring clonal or monosex trout for
experiments.
UI Moscow facilities - Each recirculating system is composed of different sized tanks to maximize efficiency and usefulness. Since each unit is a closed system, the experiments of individual investigators will not be compromised by neighboring projects. This facility includes an expanded and refurbished system for rearing juvenile fish. The advantage of this component is its proximity with the research laboratories and its support of the more technical projects.
Aquaculture Research Institute
UI Hagerman facilities - This component has both outdoor raceways that are large enough to handle mature broodstock (both salmonid and sturgeon) and a wet lab containing multiple individual tanks on single pass spring water. Animals assigned to the outdoor raceways will be pit-tagged for identification. Feeding and medication of the animals will be provided by the staff; all experimental protocols will be conducted by the principal investigators and their associates. Although this facility is located in southern Idaho at a distance from the campuses, the quality and volume of water available for the rearing of fish make this part of the core a significant asset to our overall program.