USA's largest yellow perch farm in operation
10 March, 2008 -
INDIANA-BASED Bell Aquaculture has begun the operation of what is said to be the USA's largest yellow perch farm.
The company's first aquaculture farm is located in Albany, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis.
The Albany facility currently has the production capacity of less than 100,000 pounds of fish per year and ultimately will exceed 9 million pounds per year.
According to Michael Miller, president & COO, the company will employ 70 in Albany at full build-out of the new facilities. Bell Aquaculture's Bell Perch™ product is expected to be available for restaurant purchase next spring and consumer purchase in the future.
The vision for a yellow perch farm was born when Miller became personally interested in aquaculture in 1994. After studying this science and becoming involved in the Indiana Aquaculture Association, Inc. (IAAI), he developed a dream to bring the local and personal favorite, yellow perch, back to the area.
As Miller says: "What started out as an idea on a Post-it note, ended up being 17 file cabinets of information." After more than 12 years of research, consulting fish experts and a lot of hard work, Bell Aquaculture was formed.
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publishes FISHupdate.com, FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
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