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Life is Their Oyster
Aquaculture Students Get Hands-On Experience on the Coast Will Graves Aquaculture is king in Mississippi. From farm-raised Delta catfish to oysters and blue crabs from the Gulf of Mexico, the state consistently leads the nation in aquaculture production. With the global demand for seafood and aquacultural products, there is also a need to recruit, educate and train the next generation of Mississippi’s aquaculture industry workforce. Two schools on the coast have made waves by building innovative aquaculture programs that connect students with government and industry’s experiential learning opportunities and prepare them to tackle real-world problems in environmental conservation 40
Summer 2022
and commercial fish and vegetable production. In 2016, Ocean Springs High School (OSHS) and Moss Point High School (MPHS) began developing cutting-edge high school-level programs to build student interest in aquaculture systems and research. At the time, only postsecondary aquaculture programs were available in Mississippi. Bryan Butler, OSHS’s aquaculture teacher, was a leading figure in creating the approved aquaculture curriculum and became the first to implement a high school aquaculture program in the state. Butler’s program primarily focuses on fish production, but his students also get experience with oysters and blue crabs. The program structure helps
them grow their knowledge, skills and leadership abilities over three years. Students build everything they use in the greenhouses from scratch every year, from the fish tanks to water lines and filtration systems. OSHS has four greenhouses, each containing seven tanks. Students work in different aquaculture production areas depending on their progression in the program. They also learn about sustainable food production by incorporating aquaponics — the production of hydroponic vegetables by recycling the nutrient-rich water from the greenhouse fish tanks. “What I’m trying to do is prepare them for anything that they can do in a biology or a mechanical biology-based
