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NEED FOR AQUACULTURE DOCTORATE EXPLAINED TO WEST ROTARY CLUB

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, August 28, 2009 9:55 PM CDT

A doctorate program in Aquaculture at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff would benefit the economy of the state, according to the chairman of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Department at the school said Thursday.

Speaking to a meeting of the West Pine Bluff Rotary Club at the Pine Bluff Country Club, Dr. Carole Engle said the proposed program would “keep the talent in the state and allow us to solve more problems.”

Engle said the next step in the process will be a meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees on Sept. 4, then getting the approval of the State Department of Higher Education.

“We’re ready to go,” she said. “The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s rule of thumb for a Ph.D. program is to have at least 10 professors with a doctorate degree and we have 13.”

If the proposed program wins approval, it would be only the second doctorate program in aquaculture and fisheries in the country.

Engle said the aquaculture business is a major contributor to the state’s economy, explaining that Arkansas is the “world’s largest producer of goldfish.

“Goldfish at every Wal Mart, every Pet Smart, every Petco came from Arkansas, and from one fish farm in Lonoke County,” she said. ‘The second leading item of air freight in the state is live fish.”

Engle said 80 percent of all the bait fish produced in the United States come from Arkansas, “six billion a year, but the producers are facing real challenges, including feed prices, which have doubled in the past year to year and-a-half.”

She said the Aquaculture/ Fisheries program at the university has been working with fish farmers and ARKAT, a producer of fish food at Dumas trying to find a way to lower those costs.

“We’re in the process of testing some new fish diets that are going to be cheaper on the producers,” Engle said.

After her presentation, members of the club voted to send letters to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, and to the state Department of Higher Education supporting the Ph.D. program in Aquaculture/Fisheries at UAPB.

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