Purdue Aquatic Sustainable Seafood (PASS), will hold a three-part webinar series on the 17, 24 and 31 August, from two till four pm.
An aquaculture workshop will follow on 29 -30 September.
The webinar series will cover food safety, use of fish waste and management of waste byproducts. They are geared toward fish producers who are ready to take the next step into processing, and also will be a valuable tool to existing fish processors.
"Most Indiana fish farmers sell to the live market, but recently there have been several inquiries into the processing stage," said Kwamena Quagrainie, Purdue Extension aquaculture specialist. "To get into processing, fish farmers need to know about safety, feeding during the final stages of production, and how to utilise skin, bones and other waste."
Each session has a 90-minute presentation and 30-minute question-and-answer period. The sessions are:
- Aquaculture food safety, presented by Purdue Extension educator Gonzalee Martin and David Green, Extension food scientist at North Carolina State University.
- Use of waste, led by Purdue food scientists Andrea Liceaga and Kevin Keener.
- Aquaculture production, by Purdue Extension aquaculture specialists Kwamena Quagrainie and Robert Rode and David Smith, president of Freshwater Farms of Ohio and research director of WaterSmith Systems.
At the September workshop in Anderson, Indiana, participants will tour Bell Aquaculture, the nation's largest yellow perch farm near Albany, Indiana. There also will be presentations on trends in the fish market and demonstrations about cooking with fish and making products from waste.
Registration for the webinars is due by the first of August.
Fees are $50 per session or $100 for all three; for Indiana and Illinois residents, they are $30 each or $60 for the series. They can be viewed live or 48 hours after the session.
The workshop is $20 for people who participated in all three webinar sessions, $30 for those who did not.
The events are co-sponsored by Purdue Extension, Sea Grant Illinois-Indiana, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For more information, contact Quagrainie at 765-494-4200 or by email at kquagrai@purdue.edu.
Registration information can be found at www.conf.purdue.edu/PASS
