Lawmaker Gets Update on Work at Fishery

Source from:  Martinsville Bulletin 01/07/2011

A local legislator and officials from Virginia Tech toured Blue Ridge Aquaculture's shrimping facility Wednesday to check on its progress. In April, Virginia Tech received $436,079 from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission to study the feasibility and economics of the shrimping industry in Southside Virginia. Tech invested the funds in Blue Ridge Aquaculture, in the Martinsville Industrial Park, to carry out the study. On Wednesday, state Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, who serves on the tobacco commission, toured the facility with Dr. George Flick and David Kuhn, both representatives of Virginia Tech. Flick, who has worked with Blue Ridge Aquaculture since it was founded, recently retired from Tech's food science and technology department, and Kuhn is an assistant professor in that department, according to Jim Franklin, vice president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture. Professors and staff dedicated to the shrimping study regularly relay their findings to the tobacco commission, Franklin said. Reynolds said he was asked "by the folks (at Blue Ridge) to tour the facility" and be updated on the shrimp study's progress. Reynolds is optimistic about the work and believes that it could provide an economic boost to the area. "It's the hope of the people on the tobacco commission that what they're doing now (with shrimp) will be a success" and bring jobs and money into the Martinsville-Henry County area, Reynolds said. As Franklin understood it, the tanks and equipment in the study belong to the tobacco commission. When the study ends in August, Franklin said he is unsure what will happen to the equipment, but it is possible it will be handed over to Tech. Blue Ridge Aquaculture's facility "allows them (Tech) to do research" that it otherwise might not be able to carry out, due to space or equipment constraints or funding issues, Franklin said. "It benefits us as well as Tech," he added, because the fishing industry has the potential to bring jobs to the area. If Tech finds a successful, economical way to grow shrimp in the area, its findings could persuade the fishing industry to come to Henry County and Martinsville, Franklin said. Franklin said design and construction of the shrimp tanks took several months. Now, all the tanks have been implemented and fully stocked with shrimp. He said he expects shrimp to be harvested in three to four months. With the shrimping operation is up and running at Blue Ridge, Tech is studying issues related to the growing and harvesting of shrimp, Franklin said. For example, professors and university staff have been monitoring water quality, studying the growth of the shrimp and calculating their nutritional needs to produce the highest quality shrimp, he said. They are looking for ways to optimize growing conditions and the health of the shrimp. Tech also is crunching the numbers by studying the economics behind the industry, such as marketing domestically grown shrimp and the costs of running such a business. If Tech can find the shrimping industry to be commercially and financially successful in Martinsville, it's possible such businesses may move into the area, Franklin said, although that result would be many years away. Enditem