wireeagle.auburn.edu/news, AUBURN – Auburn University President and Mrs. Jay Gogue recently honored the university’s Bass Sports Club at the President’s Home in recognition of the club’s contributions to the Auburn University Foundation.

Since January 2009 the club has presented $44,500 to Auburn from funds garnered in the National Guard FLW College Fishing Series. Teams that finish in the top five of each event are awarded funds which are distributed to the foundation for general scholarships and to the club for expenses.

“We are very proud of the club members and their dedication to being student-athletes who represent Auburn so well,” President Gogue said. “The club is among the top organizations at Auburn that truly give back to the university and the community.”

The club, founded in 2007, participates in collegiate fishing tournaments across the Southeast in events sponsored by organizations such as FLW Outdoors and BASS.

FLW Outdoors Magazine editors in January named Auburn the number two club in the nation based on a survey of all anglers who competed in the 2009 National Guard FLW College Fishing Series. The survey looked at each club and school; fishing lifestyles; tournament opportunities; club activities; and other factors.

“We are very grateful to the tournament sponsors and to Auburn for providing the opportunity to participate in these events,” said Jann Swaim, club advisor. “The tournaments provide great experiences for our students and at the same time generate funds for Auburn. We don’t focus on winning prize money, though. Our goals are to represent Auburn to the highest standard and to have pride in being a part of Auburn.”

The club, which has 30 members, sends three, two-person teams to tournaments. The duo of Shaye Baker and Dennis Parker recently won third place in the inaugural National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship, while the team of Caleb Rogers and Richard Peek took sixth place. Also earning high-ranked finishes this past year were Sam Rochelle, J.T. Murphy and Jordan Lee.

Dedication to the community and sport fishing can be seen in the club’s efforts beyond the national tournaments. The club also has hosted local Boy Scouts to help them earn merit badges in fishing.

“We are very active as a club, but are very strict and tell them they must keep their grades up and they can only fish on weekends prior to a tournament,” Swaim said. “They are very upstanding young men and women who make us very proud.”

By: Cosby Woodruff - montgomeryadvertiser.com

Alabama’s small freshwa ter shrimp industry proba bly won’t get a boost from the Gulf oil spill, but it is not out of the question that cat fish farmers might see some benefits, according to an of ficial with the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Mitt Walker, who heads the group’s catfish division, said that under normal cir cumstances, customers don’t really choose between buying catfish and saltwater species.

If the oil spill wrecks fish eries in the Gulf of Mexico, that decision-making pro cess might change, he said.

It is possible that a cus tomer will select a fresh cat fish fillet above an imported, frozen red snapper.

“We are just dealing with an element of the un­known,” Walker said when asked if the aquaculture in dustry might wind up get ting more sales because of the oil spill.

He said while more sales would be good, his biggest fear is that customers might have to turn to imported sea food to replace the seafood they used to get locally.

“My biggest concern is seeing another wave of im ports coming in,” he said.

Imported seafood often does not meet quality or safety standards that are in place for domestic produc tion, he said.

While catfish farmers are waiting to see if demand is going to increase, Walker said the impact it can have on the state’s shrimp farm ing industry is extremely limited because that indus try still has not become more than a niche producer of shrimp in Alabama.

He cited several reasons the industry will not reap a windfall. Alabama has only a few commercial shrimp farmers, and their products are all stocked and harvest ed at once.

That means the industry can supply a fresh product for only a few days or weeks each year, sometime in Sep tember.

The start-up cost and learning curve is steep, and that will discourage new producers. Even if new pro­ducers wanted to get in this year’s crop, it is too late, he said.

“They have already brought in the baby shrimp and put them in the ponds,” he said.

Bill Daniels, a professor of fisheries at Auburn Univer sity, agreed the industry is simply too restricted to han­dle shortages of gulf shrimp that may be caused by the oil spill.

“I don’t think there are enough of them in the mar ket to help it,” he said.

By: William White - oanow.com

LOACHAPOKA — A previously unnamed stream that runs through the upper fisheries research station in north Auburn is now designated by the U.S. Geological Survey as Swingle Creek.

A sign designating the creek as Swingle Creek has been placed streamside on Lee Road 188.

“It is very fitting to have his name on this creek since it originates on our research station where it all started,” said Dr. David Rouse, head of the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture at Auburn University. “Swingle was the founder of the fisheries program at Auburn as well as warm-water aquaculture in the United States.”

Rouse said what Swingle started continues today. “A lot of that technology, teaching techniques and his desire to help people around the world in developing countries.”

His grandson remembers time with his grandfather as a wonderful childhood time.

“We are all proud of him,” said Swingle’s grandson Roger Pierce of Auburn, who was creekside with his son, Jamie, and daughter, Aleyia.

“As a child I wasn’t raised here in Auburn, but I would come visit in the summers.

“We would spend long afternoons with my grandfather out on the fisheries ponds. We would fish, camp out and have a fish fry in the afternoon.

“He always took us to catch the bluegills. Maybe they were the easiest to catch.

“He was a very kind and good grandfather,” Pierce said. “He took a lot of pride in what he did.”

Swingle’s online bio credits him as being the “father of modern aquaculture.”

“The naming of the stream honors Dr. Homer Swingle, the AU fisheries professor who brought international recognition to AU, and positively impacted the global fisheries and aquaculture industries.”

By: Donathan Prater - oanow.com

With a history that spans nearly half a century, the Denson Drive Recreation Center Pool has its share of stories to tell.

It seems only fitting the historic pool’s final story will be one of the fishing variety.
The pool, which opened along with the Denson Drive Recreation Center in 1962, will host a Catfish Rodeo next weekend for first through eighth-grade students who will angle for catfish in the community center’s 25-by-50-yard L-shaped pool, which will be stocked with approximately 300 pounds of fish.
Using a cane pole, each participant will get to fish in the pool for 45 minutes or until they catch a maximum of three fish.

Participants in the rodeo will also have a chance to catch three specially branded fish for $25, $50 and $100 prizes, respectively.

The idea for the rodeo is one that Denson Drive Recreation Center Municipal Area supervisor Ben White came up with after hearing about a similar event in another state.

The hybrid catfish for the rodeo have been purchased by the city of Opelika Parks & Recreation Department from the Auburn University Center for Fisheries Research.

“The hybrid catfish are a cross between the Channel and Blue catfish species,” said AU Director of Fisheries Research Randell Goodman. “They’ve been shown to bite at a hook a little better and should be a delicious eating fish.”

The rodeo will mark the last event at the Denson Drive pool before its closure, said Barbara Kent, Opelika Sportsplex marketing director.

Plans about what to do with the pool in the future are still being discussed, Kent said.
The closing of the pool will end a chapter on the city’s history, White said.

“This pool has been a huge part of the community for the past 48 years, from swim meets to family swimming lessons being conducted at the center,” he said. “I’m sure seeing it close will be a sad moment for some, but this event will be a great sendoff for the pool until it morphs into its next creation.”

American catfish farmers are in  trouble. Currently, it costs more to produce a pound of harvested catfish than the market pays. PhD candidate Travis Brown hopes the work he is doing in Dallas County, Alabama will
help to change that. With help and funding from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Alabama Catfish Producers, and Dean Wilson Farms, Travis is part of a project that aims to improve production efficiency in channel catfish aquaculture….   A Catfish Revolution

By: William White - oanow.com

The draft Lee County master plan controlling the long-term physical development of Lee County will be available for residents to see from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. today at the old Johnson Galleries building across the street from the back of the Lee County Courthouse.

A short presentation is planned by the consultants from Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood at 6 p.m.

“The county has spent a year and countless, hundreds, if not thousands of hours, both by our planning commission and others, as well as staff along with the consultants we have hired trying to get citizen input as to what the Master Plan of the future of the county should look like,” said Lee County Commission chairman Bill English.

“They (Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood) have the first draft of the final Master Plan and this is, hopefully, the opportunity to expose the citizens to it,” English said. “To let them come see what has been done as a result of their input previously and have any input they would like to have on the final before it is presented to the commission.”

The final Master Plan is expected to come before the commission for a vote later this spring.

In other business commissioners:

- Heard from Allen Norman of Auburn about damage logging trucks were doing to Lee Road 024. Norman said he felt it was unfair for the county taxpayers to have to pay for damage to their county road done by logging trucks.

- Approved the proposed name of Swingle Creek for an unnamed stream in Lee County at the request of the United States Board on Geographic Names. The request, proposed by Dr. David Rouse with Auburn University Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, names the stream for Dr. Homer S. Swingle, an AU professor often viewed as the father of pond management, who led the expansion of his department into one of the world’s largest fishery research and teaching institutions.

- Appointed William A. Parker Jr. and Edgar J. Adams to serve on the newly formed alternative sentencing board,

- Appointed Sam Bailey to the District 2 seat on the Lee County Recreation Board,

- Announced of two director positions on the Beulah Utilities District Board. Anyone interested in serving as a director in the district should contact the county commission office in the courthouse.

- lifted the county hiring freeze to allow Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones to hire three deputy sheriffs and approved the use of the courthouse annex (old Johnson Galleries building) for a one-day fund raiser event for the Rape Counselors of East Alabama (a non-profit agency),

- approved resolution initiating Federal Aid Bridge Project on Lee Road 54.

- approved removing a portion of Lee Road 72 from U.S. Highway 280 to Lee Road 0822 the list of roads on the highway department’s annual maintenance inspection report. The city of Auburn has assumed maintenance of that portion of the road.

- approved removing five bridges from on the highway department’s annual maintenance inspection list. Those bridges are inspected in accordance with the National Bridge Inspection Standards.

- approved installation of rumble strips, signs and pavement markers on a section of Lee Road 151 and the intersection of Lee Road 188 and Lee Road 72.

- approve the replacement of a 140.1 foot bridge and approaches over Chewacla Creek on Lee Road 054,

- approved widening and resurfacing 1.287 miles on Lee Road 401 from Lee Road 166 to Lee Road 165, and

- approved Change Order Number One and closing the contract with CORE Roofing Systems Inc. that has completed their work on re-roofing the Lee County Jail.

By: Leesha Faulkner — Selma Times-Journal

SELMA — Fish are dying in the East Selma Fish Pond, but a fix is on the way.

The fish have contracted Ichthyophthirius multifilis, also known as Ich or “White Spot Disease.” It’s a parasite that many freshwater fish farmers and some aquarium owners have dealt with at some time or the other.

“Catfish farmers get it all the time,” said Elton Reece, director of the Selma Recreation Department.

Last week Reece and some others transplanted live catfish into the pond, which opens every spring for public fishing. The catfish placed in the pond weighed anywhere from 1 1/2 to 12 pounds.

At the time Reece noticed some catfish floating on top of the water. But a few dead fish through the winter didn’t appear uncommon, he said, so they placed the live, healthy fish in the pond.

On Monday Reece returned to the pond and found about 200 dead catfish. “Most of them were from last year,” he said.

Reece called Bill Hemstreet, also known as “Dr. Catfish.”

Hemstreet is an advisor in the Auburn University Department of fisheries and Allied Aquacultures. He works at the Alabama Fish Farming Center in Greensboro in fish disease diagnostics and control for the West Alabama catfish farming industry.

Hemstreet acknowledged the pond’s fish kill as a result of Ich and that it’s treatable. the pond should be ready for opening at its usual time in the late spring.

“It’s the largest protozoan known to science,” Hemstreet said.

The disease appears on the fish’s body as white dots, which could join together to form white patches under the slime layer of the fish’s body. Ich irritates the fish to the point that some of them rub against rocks or gravel.

Ich has three life stages. When the parasite is visible it is nearly fully developed and called a trophont, which feeds on the fish’s body flid for several days. Then, a fully developed tomont drops off and swims before it attaches to a plant or some other hosts. It divides rapidly and in a few days new organisms called swarmers burst from the cysts that have formed. Swarmers have to find a host in a few days or they will die. Once it finds a fish, it burrows in and becomes a trophont. The cycle begins again.

“This spreads very rapidly,” Hemstreet said.

The fish specialist has recommended copper sulfate to treat the fish in the Selma pond. Copper sulfate stays in the water one to four hours at the most, so Reece will have to use a number of applications to rid the pond of Ich, Hemstreet said.

Even the chemical could result in more fish deaths before the pond is cleared of the parasite.

Hemstreet said the treatment is similar to chemotherapy. If too much is applied, it will kill the patient.

“You have to hit that happy sweet spot,” he said, adding he hopes most of the fish will survive.

Those who fish in the pond shouldn’t worry. The parasite is ugly and kills fish, but “you could strip off the skin and the meat would be fine,” Hemstreet said.

A Living Downstream video was first produced over a decade ago in VHS format. Recently, the video was reformatted in digital form and updated to reflect the growth and evolution of the AWW Program over the past 18 years, since its inception in 1992.

Click Image to View the Video

Under the leadership of Dr. Bill Deutsch, AWW Program Director, thousands of Alabamians have been trained and certified in water quality monitoring, from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf of Mexico. AWW-trained citizen volunteers monitor their local waters, educate communities on how to better utilize and preserve water resources, and actively take part in shaping water-management policy throughout Alabama.

MASGP 10-005-01 January 2010
P.J. Waters
Extension Specialist: Aquaculture
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant
Alabama Cooperative Extension System

Hello Oyster Gardeners,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone is warming up a bit from our recent arctic experience. At this point, the oysters you took such good care of during the 2009 season have been on the restoration/enhancement sites for two months. In the first half of 2010 I hope to bring you an update on their progress. In the meantime, we are beginning to plan for this year’s gardening season.

Now is the time to start encouraging your neighbors to join. All they need to do is contact me and we can get them signed up. Training workshops will be held for new gardeners this year (April/May) in both Baldwin and Mobile Counties. I can be reached at 251.438.5690 or waterph@aces.edu . If you are involved incommunity organizations that meet and you would like Oyster Gardening to be presented, let me know and I will be happy to make a short presentation to your group.

I am happy to announce that the Oyster Gardening website is online. Special thanks to John Grigsby (MSAL Sea Grant) for setting it up for us. You can access it at www.oystergardening.org . We are still adding content, and when complete you will be able to submit measurement data online, view forms, and access the newsletter online.

Cage Repair and Replacement

As we enter the off season for growing oysters, we have a great opportunity to repair and replenish gear needed for next season. If you noticed broken doors, latches, hinges, etc. on your cages, please let me know soon so we can arrange to get them repaired.

If you lost cages last year in storms, not to worry, we can replace them, but please let me know. While we are out repairing, we can deliver replacement cages before the start of the new season.

2010 Cage Placement

This year, we are emphasizing the use of a two-point harness connecting gardens to your wharf. This will help keep the oysters evenly distributed, decrease the wear on the gardens, and reduce the loss rate in small storms.

New gardeners and those receiving replacement cages will be set up with the two point harness and a clip. For existing cages, these materials can be provided.

Volunteer Match Time Logs

If you have not completed your time match logs, please take a second and send it in. This form is extremely important for the match portion of the NEP funding. An extra copy was included in the December Newsletter, and is on the website.

When complete, you can fax the form to 251.438.5670 or mail it to 4170 Commanders Drive Mobile, Alabama 36615. You can also scan it and e mail it to me at waterph@aces.edu.

A Look Ahead

Next month, we will be including the first of four quarterly updates from the University of South Alabama entitled USA Restoration Briefs. The topics covered in this brief will focus on oyster reef restoration and fisheries enhancement. As we go through 2010, we will include these briefs as well as updates from USA on the progress of the oyster you grew in 2009. Should be interesting!

Corporate Partners

I want to introduce you to a new corporate partner of the Mobile Bay Oyster Gardening Program for the 2010 season. The Organized Seafood Association of Alabama has generously contributed to the program and we welcome their addition. If you are interested in more information about OSAA, they can be reached at www.alabamaseafood.org .

Thanks to everyone who sent in ideas for corporate partners. We are making progress on this front, and have plans to continue to develop relationships with corporations and associations who are interested in the program. If you have additional ideas, please let us know. The funds raised through these partnerships help to cover the program costs (cages, boats, etc.) and support student projects within the context of the Oyster Gardening program.

AU Daily

The Auburn University College of Agriculture and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station wrapped up 2009 with an annual awards program to honor faculty and staff. Faculty recognized for excellence in teaching, advising and research included agronomy and soils professor Elizabeth Guertal, who received the 2009 Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence; animal sciences professor Steve Schmidt, winner of the 2009 Dean’s Award for Advising Excellence; Henry Kinnucan, agricultural economics and rural sociology professor and winner of the 2009 Senior Researcher Award; and agronomy and soils assistant professor Scott McElroy, who took home the 2009 Junior Researcher Award. Five other faculty members — professor Rex Dunham, associate professor Jeff Terhune and research fellow Bill Deutsch, all in fisheries and allied aquacultures, and Nannan Liu and Joseph Kloepper in the entomology and plant pathology department — were presented 2009 Grantsmanship Awards in recognition of their outstanding successes in landing research dollars through extramural grants and contracts. In the staff and administrative/professional employees awards category, 2009 Employee of the Year awards went to Beth Clendenen, an academic program administrator in horticulture; fisheries and allied aquacultures’ Deutsch; Katie Hardy, College of Ag development program coordinator; Michael MacGhar, an agriculture technician at E.V. Smith Research Center; and Scott Snyder, information technology specialist for the college and the Experiment Station.