Aquaculturist educates fish farmers about Florida’s booming $172 million industry

RUSKIN, Fla. - Aquaculture has become big business in Florida and a laboratory at the University of Florida IFAS in Ruskin is paving the way for future fish farmers.

To say Craig Watson loves his job is an understatement.

"I always like to say that I am the luckiest man in the world to find a career like this and make it into what this has become," Watson stated.

Watson is the director of the UF/IFAS Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory. It is a research and extension facility associated with the land grant part of the university.

"We do research and extension education with fish farmers," he explained.

He says Florida has a really large and unique portion of aquaculture in the country that is focused on aquarium fish.

"It’s worth a lot of money, but like any farmer, they have issues and problems and opportunities that aren’t going to happen without some good research and extension," Watson said.

READ Bay Area oyster farmers building back Florida's aquaculture industry

He says Florida has a huge advantage over other places in the country because of the weather.

"We got a lot of water," Watson shared. "We got a lot of land and we can grow things that you can’t grow anywhere else in the country."

Clownfish are one of the most common fish on the saltwater side of things that are being produced.

Watson and his team are trying to help farmers reduce costs by getting the clownfish off live foods and onto a diet as fast as possible. The facility was also the first to produce a melanosis brass fish.

READ University of Florida’s aquaculture lab in Ruskin focuses on keeping fish farms successful

"We’re growing more fish in a smaller footprint than ever before," he stated.

Watson says aquaculture in Florida has a lot of different segments to it. Each one has its value, especially in a localized area, but he says the tropical fish and aquarium plant side is worth $172 million a year and employs more than 1,000 people, so the local communities benefit financially from it.

In addition to working with farmers, Watson and his team work with agencies to help answer other questions.

"I started out as a kid with an aquarium and now I’m an old man with a fish farm," he said. "I think aquaculture in Florida has a very bright future."