One word, regulation! Michigan is extremely unfriendly to Aquaculture. It seems to live in a twighlit zone of oversight/licensing. It is technically supposed to be handled by Mdard, however the DNR, DEQ, and health dept also want oversight in licensing. The law and forms are simple enough, species from the list, privately controlled water, and containment. The state is trying to enforce a site plan approval process that would be the same for a single 1/4 acre farm pond or a million dollar facility which if you followed their recommendations would be 10s of thousands of dollars and months/years of planning plus around $3000 per year per species in disease testing.
