PRINCETON, Ky. — For those who have ever considered fishing for bass and bluegill from the banks of their own pond or dipping a toe into small-scale shrimp sales, a workshop offered by the Kentucky State University Extension could be just the thing to float your boat.
The Small-scale, Home Use and Recreation Aquaculture workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 23 at the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center in Princeton.
Sessions
William Wurts, senior state specialist for aquaculture, said the sessions are designed to show a landowner what could be done with either a small existing pond or by constructing a new one. He emphasized the workshop would not cover large-scale commercial fish production.
Those opportunities range from personal recreational use to small scale local sales.
On the latter end of that spectrum, Wurts said a producer selling a few hundred pounds of freshwater shrimp or fish at retail prices through niche markets could potentially see a 10 to 20 percent return on an initial investment. He also knows of people who raise shrimp in ponds as small as a half-acre just to supply an annual giant shrimp boil for their friends and families.
The end result of a small-scale aquaculture venture is up to the landowner, Wurts said.
Details
The workshop is free and open to the public. Sessions will cover low-input shrimp farming, managing bass and bluegill in farm ponds, small-scale catfish farming, pond construction and liming ponds.
No registration is necessary.
For more information, contact Wurts at 270-365-7541, ext. 200, or Forrest Wynne, aquaculture extension specialist, at 270-247-2334.
