The U.S. aquaculture industry is an important sector of U.S. agriculture. Production in 2000 was about 823 million pounds and generated approximately $973 million for producers. Yet, anticipated growth in the industry, both in magnitude and in species diversity, continues to fall short of expectations.

Much of what is known about aquaculture science is a result of institutional attention given to our traditional capture of wild fisheries with the goal of releasing cultured fishes into public waters for enhancement of declining public stocks. Despite extensive efforts to manage wild populations for a sustained yield, as a nation we consume substantially greater amounts than we produce. Much of the United States’ demand for seafood has been met by imports. The value of imported fisheries products has substantially increased over the last two decades. In 2001, the U.S. imported $18.5 billion of fisheries products and the trade deficit was $6.7 billion for all fisheries products, almost all of which was for edible fish and shellfish.

Landings for most commercial capture fisheries species and recreational fisheries of the United States have been relatively stable during the last decade, with many fish stocks being over exploited. In this situation, aquaculture provides an opportunity to reduce the trade deficit and meet the rising U.S. demand for fish products. A strong domestic aquaculture industry is needed to increase U.S. production of fish and shellfish. This can be achieved by a partnership among the Federal Government, State and local public institutions, and the private sector with expertise in aquaculture development.

Congress recognized the opportunity for making significant progress in aquaculture development in 1980 by passage of the National Aquaculture Act (P.L. 96-362). Congress amended the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-113) in Title XIV of the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 (P.L. 97-98) by granting authority to establish aquaculture research, development, and demonstration centers in the United States in association with colleges and universities, State Departments of Agriculture, Federal facilities, and non-profit private research institutions. Five such centers have been established: one in each of the northeastern, north central, southern, western, and tropical/subtropical Pacific regions of the country. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171), otherwise known as the Farm Bill, has reauthorized the Regional Aquaculture Center program at $7.5 million per annum. As used here, a center refers to an administrative center. Centers do not provide monies for brick-and-mortar development. Centers encourage cooperative and collaborative aquaculture research and extension educational programs that have regional or national application. Center programs complement and strengthen other existing research and extension educational programs provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other public institutions. As a matter of policy, centers implement their programs by using institutional mechanisms and linkages that are in place in the public and private sector.

The mission of the Regional Aquaculture Centers (RACs) is to support aquaculture research, development, demonstration, and extension education to enhance viable and profitable U.S. aquaculture production which will benefit consumers, producers, service industries, and the American economy.

The North Central Regional Aquaculture Center (NCRAC) was established in February 1988. It serves as a focal point to assess needs, establish priorities, and implement research and extension educational programs in the twelve state agricultural heartland of the United States which includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. NCRAC also provides coordination of interregional and national programs through the National Coordinating Council for Aquaculture (NCC). The council is composed of the RAC directors and USDA aquaculture personnel.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Michigan State University (MSU) and Iowa State University (ISU) work together to develop and administer programs of NCRAC through a memorandum of understanding. MSU is the prime contractor for the Center and has administrative responsibilities for its operation. The Director of NCRAC is located at MSU. ISU shares in leadership of the Center through an office of the Associate Director who is responsible for all aspects of the Center’s publications, technology transfer, and outreach activities.

At the present time the staff of NCRAC at MSU includes Ted R. Batterson, Director, and Liz Bartels, Executive Secretary. The Center Director has the following responsibilities:

Developing and submitting proposals to USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (USDA/CSREES) which, upon approval, becomes a grant to the Center;
Developing appropriate agreements (sub-contracts) with other parties, including ISU for the Associate Director’s office, for purposes of transferring funds for implementation of all projects approved under the grants;
Serving as executive secretary to the Board of Directors, responsible for preparing agenda and minutes of Board meetings;
Serving as an ex-officio (non-voting) member of the Technical Committee and Industry Advisory Council;
Coordinating the development of research and extension plans, budgets, and proposals;
Coordinating and facilitating interactions among the Administrative Center, Board of Directors, Industry Advisory Council, and Technical Committee;
Monitoring research and extension activities;
Arranging for review of proposals for technical and scientific merit, feasibility, and applicability to priority problems and preparing summary budgets and reports as required;
Recruiting other Administrative Center staff as authorized by the Board of Directors;
Maintaining liaison with other RACs; and
Serving on the NCC.

At the present time NCRAC’s Office for Publications and Extension Programs at ISU is under the direction of Joseph E. Morris, Associate Director. The Associate Director has the following responsibilities:

Coordinating, facilitating, and executing regional aquaculture extension program activities;
Serving as head of Publications for NCRAC, including editor of the fact sheet, technical bulletin, culture manual, and video series as well as of the NCRAC Newsletter;
Serving as the NCRAC liaison with national aquaculture extension programs, including in particular, extension programs of the other four USDA Regional Aquaculture Centers; and
Serving as a member of NCRAC's Extension Executive Committee.

The Board of Directors (BOD) is the primary policy-making body of the NCRAC. The BOD has established an Industry Advisory Council (IAC) and Technical Committee (TC). Membership of the BOD consists of four persons from the IAC, a representative from the region’s State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Cooperative Extension Services, a member from a non-land grant university, representatives from the two universities responsible for the center: Michigan State and Iowa State, and chairs of the two subcommittees of the Center’s Technical Committee. The IAC is composed of representatives from each state’s aquaculture association and six at-large members appointed by the BOD who represent various sectors of the aquaculture industry and the region as a whole. The TC is composed of a sub-committee for Extension (TC/E) and a sub-committee for Research (TC/R). Directors of the Cooperative Extension Service within the North Central Region appoint representatives to the TC/E. The TC/R has broad regional make-up and is composed of scientists from universities and state agencies with varied aquacultural expertise who are appointed by the BOD. Each sub-committee of the TC has a chairperson who serves as a member of the BOD.

NCRAC functions in accordance with its Operations Manual which is periodically amended and updated with BOD approval. It is an evolving document that has changed as the Center’s history lengthens. It is used for the development of the cooperative regional aquaculture and extension projects that NCRAC funds.

ADMINISTRATIVE OPERATIONS

Since inception of NCRAC February 1, 1988, the role of the Administrative Center has been to provide all necessary support services to the BOD, IAC, TC, and project work groups for the North Central Region as well as representing the region on the NCC. As the scope of the NCRAC programs expand, this has entailed a greater work load and continued need for effective communication among all components of the Center and the aquaculture community.

The Center functions in the following manner.

After BOD approval of Administrative Center costs, the Center submits a grant to USDA/CSREES/Grants Management Branch for approval. To date the Center has received 15 grants from USDA for FY88 (Grant #88-38500-3885), FY89 (Grant #89-38500-4319), FY90 (Grant #90-38500-5008), FY91 (Grant #91-38500-5900), FY92 (Grant #92-38500-6916), FY93 (Grant #93-38500-8392), FY94 (Grant #94-38500-0048), FY95 (Grant #95-38500-1410), FY96 (Grant #96-38500-2631), FY97 (#97-38500-3957), FY98 (#98-38500-5863), FY99 (#99-38500-7376), FY00 (#00-38500-8984), FY2001 (#2001-38500-10369), and FY2002 (#2002-38500-11752) with monies totaling $10,946,985. Currently, five grants are active (FY98-02); the first ten grants (FY88-97) have terminated.
The Center annually coordinates a program planning meeting which typically sets priorities for the next funding cycle and calls for development of project outlines to address priority problem areas.
Work Groups are formed which submit project outlines to the Center. The projects are peer reviewed by experts from both within and outside the region and a Project Review Committee.
The BOD, using the Project Review Committee’s recommendation and reviewers’ responses, decides which projects are to be approved and funding levels. The Center conveys BOD decisions to all Project Work Groups. Those that are approved for funding are asked to submit revised project outlines incorporating BOD, Project Review Committee, and reviewers’ comments.
The Center then submits the revised project outlines as a Plan of Work (POW) to USDA for approval.
Once a POW is approved by USDA, the Center then prepares subcontracts for each participating institution. The Center receives all invoices for subcontractual agreements and prepares payment vouchers for reimbursement. Thus, the Center staff serve as fiscal agents for both receiving and disbursing funds in accordance with all terms and provisions of the grants.

Through August 31, 2002, the Center has funded or is funding 60 projects through 320 subcontracts from the first 14 grants received. Funding for these Center supported projects is summarized in Table 1 below. Information about funded projects is also available at the Center’s Web site (http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/aquanic/ncrac).

During this reporting period, the Publications Office at ISU produced and distributed a number of publications including fact sheets, technical bulletins, videos, and the Center’s newsletter. A complete list of all publications from this office is included in the Appendix under Extension.

Other areas of support by the Administrative Office during this reporting period included: monitoring research and extension activities and developing progress reports; developing liaisons with appropriate institutions, agencies and clientele groups; soliciting, in coordination with the other RACs, written testimony for the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies; participating in the NCC; numerous oral and written presentations to both professional and lay audiences; working with other fisheries and aquaculture programs throughout the North Central Region; and in conjunction with the Aquaculture Network Information Center (AquaNIC) maintaining the NCRAC Web site.

PROJECT REPORTING

As indicated in Table 1, NCRAC has funded a number of projects for many of the project areas it has selected for research and extension activities. For example, there have been eight separately funded projects in regard to Extension and Yellow Perch. Project outlines have been written for each separate project within an area, or the project area itself if only one project. These project outlines have been submitted in POWs or amendments to POWs for the grants as indicated in Table 1. Many times, the projects within a particular area are continuations of previously funded activities while at other times they are addressing new objectives. Presented below are Progress or Termination Reports mostly for projects that were underway or completed during the period September 1, 2001 to August 31, 2002. Projects, or Project components, that terminated prior to September 1, 2001 have been reported on in earlier documents (e.g., 1989-1996 Compendium Report and other Annual Progress Reports).

A cumulative list of all publications, manuscripts, papers presented, or other outputs for all funded NCRAC project areas is contained in the Appendix.

Table 1. North Central Regional Aquaculture Center funded projects.

Project Area	Project Number	Proposed Duration Period	Funding Level	Grant Number
Extension	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	5/1/89-4/30/91 3/17/90-8/31/91 9/1/91-8/31/93 9/1/93-8/31/95 9/1/95-8/31/97 9/1/97-8/31/99 9/1/99-8/31/01 9/1/01-8/31/03	$39,221 $37,089 $31,300 $94,109 $110,129 $10,813 $20,391 $38,000 $94,000 $28,500 $18,000 $521,552	88-38500-3885 89-38500-4319 89-38500-4319 91-38500-5900 91-38500-5900 92-38500-6916 95-38500-1410 97-38500-3957 99-38500-7376 99-38500-7376 2001-38500-10369
Economics/Marketing	1 2 3 4	5/1/89-12/31/91 9/1/91-8/31/92 9/1/93-8/31/95 9/1/99-8/31/01	$127,338 $34,350 $53,300 $40,000 $47,916 $302,904	88-38500-3885 89-38500-4319 91-38500-5900 93-38500-8392 97-38500-3957
Yellow Perch	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	5/1/89-8/31/91 6/1/90-8/31/92 9/1/91-8/31/93 9/1/93-8/31/95 9/1/95-8/31/97 9/1/97-8/31/99 9/1/98-8/31/00 9/1/01-5/31/04	$76,957 $85,723 $92,108 $99,997 $150,000 $199,507 $185,458 $92,370 $326,730 $125,016 $1,433,866	88-38500-3885 89-38500-4319 90-38500-5008 91-38500-5900 93-38500-8392 95-38500-1410 97-38500-3957 98-38500-5863 00-38500-8984 2001-38500-10369
Hybrid Striped Bass	1 2 3 4 5 6 7	5/1/89-8/31/91 6/1/90-8/31/92 9/1/91-8/31/93 9/1/93-8/31/95 9/1/95-8/31/97 6/1/99-5/31/00 9/1/01-5/31/04	$68,296 $68,114 $101,000 $96,550 $168,000 $150,000 $15,000 $98,043 $211,957 $976,960	88-38500-3885 89-38500-4319 90-38500-5008 91-38500-5900 93-38500-8392 95-38500-1410 96-38500-2631 98-38500-5863 2001-38500-10369
Walleye	1 2 3 4 5 6 7	5/1/89-8/31/91 6/1/90-8/31/92 9/1/91-8/31/92 9/1/92-8/31/93 9/1/93-8/31/95 9/1/95-8/31/97 9/1/99-6/30/02	$177,517 $111,657 $109,223 $75,000 $150,000 $117,395 $59,835 $127,000 $927,627	89-38500-4319 90-38500-5008 91-38500-5900 89-38500-4319 93-38500-8392 94-38500-0048 95-38500-1410 98-38500-5863
Sunfish	1 2 3 4 5	6/1/90-8/31/92 9/1/92-8/31/94 9/1/94-8/31/96 9/1/96-9/31/98 9/1/99-8/31/01	$130,758 $149,799 $173,562 $199,921 $199,748 $853,788	90-38500-5008 92-38500-6916 94-38500-0048 96-38500-2631 99-38500-7376
Salmonids	1 2 3 4	6/1/90-8/31/92 9/1/92-8/31/94 9/1/94-8/31/96 9/1/97-8/31/99	$9,000 $120,799 $149,997 $199,290 $158,656 $637,742	89-38500-4319 90-38500-5008 92-38500-6916 94-38500-0048 97-38500-3957
NCR Aquaculture Conference	1 2	6/1/90-3/31/91 12/9/98-6/30/99	$7,000 $3,000 $10,000	90-38500-5008 96-38500-2631
National Aquaculture Extension Workshop/Conference	1 2	10/1/91-9/30/92 12/1/96-11/30/97	$3,005 $3,700 $6,705	89-38500-4319 95-38500-1410
Crayfish	1	9/1/92-8/31/94	$49,677	92-38500-6916
Baitfish	1	9/1/92-8/31/94	$61,973	92-38500-6916
Wastes/Effluents	1 2 3	9/1/92-8/31/94 9/1/96-8/31/98 9/1/01-8/31/04	$153,300 $100,000 $106,186 $88,814 $448,300	92-38500-6916 96-38500-2631 00-38500-8984 2001-38500-10369
National Aquaculture INAD/NADA Coordinator	1	9/1/93-8/31/94 5/15/95-5/14/96 5/15/96-5/14/97 5/15/97-5/14/98 5/15/98-5/14/99 5/15/99-5/14/00	$2,000 $5,000 $6,669 $3,331 $15,000 $13,241 $10,000 $55,241	89-38500-4319 94-38500-0048 92-38500-6916 95-38500-1410 96-38500-2631 94-38500-0048 95-38500-1410
Tilapia	1 2	9/1/96-8/31/98 9/1/98-5/14/00	$118,791 $150,000 $268,791	96-38500-2631 98-38500-5863