GCRLs Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center Makes Seatrout Donation to Scranton Museum

The Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center at The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs made a donation of live seatrout this week to the Scranton Museum in Pascagoula.

The fish will become part of live displays, which are kept at the museum for visitors to experience. There are plans for a donation of live snapper as well.

The Scranton Museum was a working Shrimp Boat in the 1960's and 70's, and was donated to the City of Pascagoula in the early 80's by Charles Graham, then converted into a floating museum at River Park in 1985. At some point in the 90's it was moved onto land. In 1998, Hurricane Georges damaged the museum and it remained closed until June of 2013.

There are three aquariums; fresh water, low and high brackish which represents the local marine habitats. The spotted sea trout will be on display in the high brackish tank. In addition to the aquariums, the exhibits include the bunkroom, head, galley, wheelhouse, and the hold room where shrimp were stored. There are also displays of a shrimp boat dragging its nets for shrimp and of various marine life and habitats.

The Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center employs cutting-edge technology, innovative research, and hands-on testing to grow fish and crustaceans in an economically feasible and environmentally responsible manner. The Center is a leader in the development of intensive, low water use, high biosecurity culture of marine species for both consumption and enhancement of native populations.

Industry collaboration has led to the development of cost-effective methods for producing shrimp in tank systems, and the efficacy of using ponds for soft-shell blue crab production is currently being investigated.

In addition to production for consumptive purposes, the Center has partnered with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources for stock enhancement of local exploited populations. Here, methods for rearing spotted seatrout and red snapper in captivity are being fine-tuned, and fish produced are then released into the wild to supplement native populations.

To date, more than 800,000 spotted seatrout and 20,000 red snapper have been released into coastal and marine waters to supplement these important recreational and commercial stocks. 

For more information about the Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center, visit: http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/cmac/index.php