Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Yellow perch aquaculture in Indiana

A company in Indiana that hopes to raise 8.5 million lb/year of yellow perch by 2015! That is a mess of fish!

http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=9&id=30994&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target

Man that is one facility that I'd love to go on a tour of when it's done.

Yeh, but . . . if they are using Cecil's perch, that is probably only about a half-million fish per a year.

Or, is this Cecil's secret project?

I hope they have more than one ultra-high-speed laser fillet machine. That is a lot of fillets!

That is one fat-looking perch in the photograph.

I wish I had $100 for every indoor yellow perch aquaculture facility the went pelvic fins up. How many are ready to sign on as investors? I'm sticking with my pond raised perch.

Well if anyone can do it, it's Michael Miller who is the man that is running it. Michael's as smart as a whip and a savy businessman. He worked for CNN as some kind of legal consultant a few years back too. Bill Manci of Colorado is the their chief technology officer who seems to really know his stuff.

I wish all the best for them but like Bill says so far no one is making a profit raising RAS perch yet. Too many capital costs. Let's hope Bell Aquaculture can do it.

As far as tours I doubt it. They keep every close to the chest there with proprietary information etc.

Nope not me and not any of my perch.

CB1 - the last guy I knew that had proprietary information about his perch raising is now raising something else besides perch. Cecil aren't Yinglings who were raising perch now raising mostly something else lie BG and goldfish and/or koi?

Yeah last I heard goldfish. But like I said if anyone can do it...
If you've ever met Michael Miller you'd know he's a consummate professional -- all business. Not sure if that's enough but you can't blame them for trying.

What's really weird about the aquaculture business is you're supposed to start out small to play it safe but you can't make any money unless you're big to reduce the per unit costs. Maybe that's what they're doing?

CB1 Playing big is easy to do with someone elses money.

I have a good example of just that but we'd be going into the realm of politics and that's not allowed.

Since yellow perch are so popular as table food and their populations are declining or having difficulty maintaining constant numbers in the Great Lakes, that is why they keep trying to grow them indoors. It won't be long before someone makes indoor aquaculture of yellow perch profitable. Hopefully Miler and associates in Indiana can make this work better. Maybe size of the operation is the key to success in growing perch indoors - less duplication of effort produces more efficiency.

I agree, Bill. Wouldn't that be exciting if someone could actually make it work?