The center was established within the College of Arts and Sciences at WCU in 1988. Its mandate is to foster biotechnologically based research to support the economic sustainability of the aquaculture industry in Western North Carolina. Facilities include an office, an analytical laboratory, on-campus fish-rearing laboratories utilizing biofiltered recirculated water and trout hatchery, and rearing facilities at the Lonesome Valley Aquaculture Research Station, Cashiers, North Carolina. Research activities of the center are of both a basic and an applied nature. They are conducted by the center personnel in collaboration with faculty and students (graduate and undergraduate) in the Departments of Biology and of Chemistry and Physics and also include collaborative research activities with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, and the commercial trout industry. Areas of research interest include culture characteristics of all-female and/or triploid rainbow and brook trout, identification of DNA markers associated with sex and other genetic traits of interest in commercial trout production as well as in fisheries management, study of the physiological responses of fish to stressors (thermal, pH, etc.), identification of biochemical measures and genetic markers associated with levels in these responses, and monitoring impact and control of fish farm effluents.
This page is maintained by Nancy Carden in the
Office of the Provost.
Last updated: 2/15/2005.
Copyright 2005 by Western Carolina University .