Aquaculture in the Southwest

This week, I decided to do aquaculture research. Aquaculture is fish farming in a controlled environment. Surprisingly, I discovered that aquaculture in Arizona is rather common after talking to Kevin Fitzsimmons, University of Arizona professor and extension specialist and research scientist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Fitzsimmons told me that Arizona produces a lot of tilapia, a white fish. Tilapia and trout are the main fish farmed in the Southwestern United States, according to Fitzsimmons. He told me about a huge tilapia farm in Hyder, Arizona called Desert Springs Tilapia, which was founded by a UA graduate.

After looking through the Desert Springs Tilapia Web site, I discovered that they are environmentally friendly. Fresh water circulates the fish tanks, which are self-cleaned to remove all of the “organic material released by growing fish.”

Not only do they keep the fish tanks clean, "all water circulated through our ponds and raceways becomes rich in nutrients, which act as a natural fertilizer. Water is reused in the agricultural production of alfalfa, Bermuda grass hay, barley oats and olive trees," according to the Desert Springs Tilapia Web site.

I'm sure you are probably wondering what these farms look like. Some of these fish farms are in concrete long raceway troughs and some are in big round tanks with water running through them to water the fields, explained Fitzsimmons. I would have never pictured those troughs filled with water running alongside crops to actually have fish in them, you know the ones you see while you are driving on the highway.







Although I've heard that farmed fish are not always the healthiest fish for you and that wild fish are the better food choice, aquaculture that kills two birds with one stone by replenishing the fish farm water then using it to water crops, may be a good choice. Read this article and you might get a better understanding, plus it is actually really interesting: .

This is a link to a video that I found on aquaculture: salmon aquaculture.

All photos were used with permission by Kevin Fitzsimmons.