MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center is to conduct aquaculture research to address the highest priority needs of the U.S. aquaculture industry. The Center’s research program is comprised of in-house research projects in both Stuttgart, Arkansas and Fort Pierce, FL. 

The Center's research programs focus primarily in four areas:

1) Freshwater Systems Production Research including development of feeds and improved culture strategies for warmwater fish species, other than catfish, such as hybrid striped bass, baitfish, ornamental fish and carp.

2) Marine Systems Production Research including development of feeds, improved recirculating production systems, and larval culture strategies for sustainable production of marine species such as flounder, sea bass and pompano grown in low-salinity environments.

3) Disease Therapeutics Evaluation and Registration Research for warmwater fish species including catfish, trout, tilapia, baitfish and hybrid striped bass.

4) Bird Depredation Research including development of practical dispersal and barrier technologies for control of fish-eating birds on fish farms.

HISTORY

The Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center, was formally the Fish Farming Experimental Laboratory (FFEL)of the National Biological Services, U.S. Department of Interior until transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1996 as a part of the Farm Bill. The station was established in 1958 in response to the Fish Rice Rotation Act (Public Law 85-342) which directed the Secretary of the Interior to develop a program of research and experimentation to solve problems related to the production and harvest of warmwater fish.

FACILITIES

Stuttgart, Arkansas

Research facilities include a 18,000 ft2 bench research laboratory completed in 1992. About 60% of the floor space is devoted to research activities in fish diseases, nutrition and feeds development, chemical registration, and water quality management/production systems. Support functions include a technical library with computerized information retrieval capabilities, glassware washing and storage, chemical storage, and several special equipment rooms. The remaining 40% of the space houses administrative activities that are essential to provide support for the research staff and information to the aquaculture user group. The building includes space for computerized information retrieval and conference areas. Supporting facilities include a paved parking lot for the projected increase in user group visits, and for the staff, a renovated septic system for domestic waste, a rehabilitated dry well system for laboratory sink waste, and filters/piping for necessary upgrading of the wet laboratory water supplies.

Other laboratory research facilities include a 3,700 ft2 wet laboratory equipped with 72 aquaria and numerous tanks and troughs capable of being supplied with several temperatures of well water and pond water. Back-up generators serve the life support systems and a recently completed rehabilitation of the auxiliary laboratory (2,100 ft2) has resulted in a research facility equipped with grinder, crumblers, screener, and pellet mills for the manufacture of hard pellet and moist pellet fish feed. This building has a remodeled fish disease research wet laboratory with an adjacent laboratory equipped with hoods and other equipment essential for fish disease research.

A newly completed 8,000 ft2 tank farm equipped with 120 4-foot diameter fiberglass fish holding tanks. Each unit is supplied with well water and filtered pond water, aeration and auxiliary electrical power for research equipment. Emergency electrical power serves the aeration and water supply life support system.

There are 36 0.1-acre, 36 0.25-acre and nine 1.0-acre research type earthen ponds, and two 1.5-acre earthen raceways, one 3-acre "holding" pond and a 27-acre water storage reservoir. The ponds and wet laboratories can be discharged into the 27-acre reservoir thus enabling the on-site management of exotic fishes, chemicals and drugs. Water for the research ponds and wet laboratories is obtained from 3 deep wells with a total capacity exceeding 1,000 gallons per minute.

Other buildings located on the 85-acre Stuttgart, AR, site include a mechanical shop and equipment fabrication building (1,700 ft2), personnel support building (3,700 ft2), plumbing and metal fabrication building (600 ft2), water filtration and purification plant (160 ft2), general storage building (3,000 ft2) and an vehicle storage building (1,800 ft2).

Fort Pierce, Florida

The ARS program is located at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI), Ft. Pierce, Florida. The HBOI aquaculture facilities are located in two sites, which cover a total of 65 acres. All facilities have pretreated well water, both freshwater and saltwater, aeration, and back up power. The aquaculture facilities incorporate recirculating technology and all effluent is managed on site with a zero-discharge policy.

Nutrition-related facilities include an analytical laboratory (1,000 ft2) equipped with a wide variety of equipment capable of performing procedures for nutrition, physiology, and endocrinology experiments. Experimental diets are manufactured in the analytical lab and the HBOI feed lab and storage building (720 ft2) with standard feed handling equipment: Hobart mixer and extruder, vertical mixer and drying ovens. A wet laboratory (500 ft2) contains holding systems for the evaluation of experimental diets with juvenile fish. Another wet laboratory (1600 ft2)is equipped with 5-foot diameter tanks for evaluation of diets on adult fish.

A 4560 ft2 broodstock, larval, and early junvenile facilitiy is equipped with 8-foot and 12-foot diameter tanks connected to multiple chiller/heating systems for broodstock and larval rearing research. Additionally, an insulated, temperature controled room houses a live feeds culture room for algae, rotifers, artemia and copepods, and an egg incubation area.

Production-related facilities include a newly-constructed, 16,000 ft2 recirculating aquaculture production building. This world-class facility is designed with two different types of recirculating water systems, each replicated 4 times. There are 32 dual drain tanks in the facility; each system has four tanks (10-foot diameter). Each replicate in System 1 has two 25 cubic ft. beadfilters and each replicate in System 2 has two 25 cu. ft. low-space bioreactors. All systems include rotating drum filters , swirl separators, UV sterilizers, and oxygen cones.

Support facilities include a 1440 ft2 holding facility equipped with 8 tanks of various size for quarantine and holding of newly arrived fingerlings.