The UTM Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources received a $1,000 grant, the only one awarded to a university nationally, from the U.S. Freshwater Prawn and Shrimp Growers Association. The grant was given to aid in an aquaculture program already two years underway.

“We’re going to do a study of growing catfish in cages over fresh water prawns in the summer. The prawns are in the open water on the bottom where the catfish are in cages on top. The waste of the catfish feed plankton, which the prawn eat,” said Dr. Jim Byford, dean of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.

If all goes as planned, the aquaculture techniques studied will be used to help local farmers diversify their methods and increase economic opportunities.

“We hope to find some ways to add income for farmers who want to try aquaculture,” Byford said.

The department has already completed two successful prawn harvests. Students played a large part in these harvests. “Students actually manage the pond. They feed them, watch the oxygen and other water quality characteristics and then harvest and sell them.

We’ve been able to sell everything we’ve produced,” added Byford. Prawn are edible crustaceans often farmed commercially. They are distinguished from their similar-in-appearance-cousin, the shrimp, by the shape of their gills, which take on a “branching shape.”

The U.S. Freshwater Prawn and Shrimp Growers Association was founded in 2002 with the purpose of distributing information to its members for the benefit of aquaculture and the U.S. economy.