Posted by When you tour the WATER Institute in the Milwaukee harbor and get a look at the tanks full of fish, you get a glimpse of the emerging economic cluster based on freshwater technologies.
There are sturgeon, which live in our freshwater lakes to 150 years and maybe more. There are fat yellow perch, which the institute is trying to resuscitate in better strains and larger numbers so Wisconsinites can continue to enjoy Friday night fish fries.
Director Val Klump predicts that fish farming will take over from commercial fishing as the main source of seafood in 20 years because fisheries around the world are being overtaxed and depleted.
There’s a lot more going on at the institute than aquaculture. The 11-acre “Harbor Campus” of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is also home to a lot of biotechnology. The collection of 70 scientists, research associates, support staff and students examines ways to use fish instead of mice to test new drugs; sources of contamination in the Great Lakes; the impact of invasive species on lake ecology; and technologies to protect drinking water supplies.
The website for the Great Lakes Water Institute – “Wisconsin Aquatic Technology and Environmental Research:” http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/
Click Title for complete article. Thanks to Jane Dauffenbach of Aquarius Systems for the post.
Lake Stewardship 