WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:02.000 Morning Tony. 01:00.000 --> 01:14.000 What is this facility, how did it come about, and what is its purpose, let's start there. 01:14.000 --> 01:20.000 Yeah, so this is the University of Wisconsin-Stevens point, northern aquaculture demonstration facility. 01:20.000 --> 01:26.000 And it exists to be a research arm of the aquaculture industry in the state of Wisconsin, ultimately. 01:26.000 --> 01:32.000 The state of Wisconsin recognized a need for developing aquaculture within the state. 01:32.000 --> 01:40.000 And part of developing aquaculture in the state is having a strong, robust research arm. 01:40.000 --> 01:53.000 So our mandate is to do research that supports aquaculture, but also science transfer, where we're taking that research and teaching it to prospective fish farmers. 01:53.000 --> 02:07.000 And then we also do outreach and education where we're teaching K-12 students or college students about aquaculture, training, future workforce, and various other aspects of developing an aquaculture industry within the state. 02:07.000 --> 02:14.000 So I think most people think of aquaculture and know about salmon or tilapia. Why do you have walleye? 02:14.000 --> 02:25.000 Yeah, I mean, we've done research with salmon and tilapia, but walleye are a species that is very valuable in the upper Midwest, especially in Wisconsin. 02:25.000 --> 02:31.000 And we, for the longest time, have not been able to culture walleye in captivity. 02:31.000 --> 02:39.000 And going forward, having walleye as a suitable aquaculture species has the potential to be very valuable. 02:39.000 --> 02:53.000 Right now, if you go to a supermarket or go to a Friday fish fry, and there's walleye on the menu, that walleye is almost certainly coming in as frozen flays from wild capture of fisheries in Canada. 02:53.000 --> 03:03.000 Which is great, but that market could be supplemented by walleye that are raised right here in Wisconsin, locally to where they're being consumed. 03:04.000 --> 03:11.000 So we're doing a lot of research to try to develop walleye as a suitable aquaculture species, figure out all the particularities of raising them. 03:11.000 --> 03:20.000 And hopefully, in the next couple years, we can have walleye that are on your plate that have been grown right here in Wisconsin. 03:20.000 --> 03:24.000 So what are you looking at and what have you found? 03:24.000 --> 03:30.000 Yeah, so we're very early in developing walleye as a suitable aquaculture species. 03:30.000 --> 03:36.000 Other developed species, such as Atlantic salmon, we've been raising since the 50s, 60s. 03:36.000 --> 03:41.000 We've been only raising walleye for 10 to 15 years, right? 03:41.000 --> 03:46.000 And there's a lot of challenges that you have to overcome to develop a species for aquaculture. 03:46.000 --> 03:53.000 And we've been iteratively working on those challenges in bottlenecks to make walleye a suitable species. 03:54.000 --> 04:07.000 So we've done everything from figuring out what feed to feed them at different life stages to figuring out what environmental conditions to give broodstock, what temperatures, what oxygen conditions, water quality parameters. 04:07.000 --> 04:14.000 We've also tried to figure out techniques that make them more suitable for food fish development. 04:14.000 --> 04:22.000 So can we stagger out the timing of their growth so you can bring them to market at different times and various aspects like that? 04:22.000 --> 04:33.000 Another thing that's neat is the research that we're doing, while it primarily has an aquaculture angle to it, often also has direct application to wild fish fisheries. 04:33.000 --> 04:50.000 So we're digging into the reproductive physiology of these fish and some of our findings can tell us things about the importance of winter water temperatures for walleye spawning or growth rates of various strains of walleye that we're working with. 04:50.000 --> 04:55.000 So it kind of has that dual application that's really neat. 04:55.000 --> 05:03.000 Yeah, absolutely. So for any fish species, light and temperature are very important factors. 05:03.000 --> 05:16.000 For walleye, temperature is really a primary driver of gonadal development. 05:16.000 --> 05:23.000 In the wild walleye are experiencing a cold winter. They're under the ice for the bulk of that winter period. 05:23.000 --> 05:29.000 And we know that that cold winter is really important for their egg development and spawning. 05:29.000 --> 05:38.000 We don't really have a great idea of where the thresholds are or the boundaries on how warm that winter period can be for successful reproduction. 05:38.000 --> 05:44.000 So we've been doing research on trying to identify where those thresholds are. 05:44.000 --> 05:53.000 We've found in our research that colder water temperatures are far more ideal for optimizing spawning in walleye. 05:53.000 --> 06:00.000 So anything four to five degrees Celsius or cooler is perfect for walleye. 06:00.000 --> 06:06.000 You'll get the best spawn if those fish have been exposed to those cold water temperatures. 06:06.000 --> 06:17.000 Approaching eight degrees Celsius and warmer, you start to see a decline in gamete quality as well as the total number of eggs spawned and milked produced by the males. 06:17.000 --> 06:22.000 And then even warmer than that, and we see pretty much a complete cessation of spawning. 06:22.000 --> 06:28.000 So this information is really useful for figuring out how to raise walleye in a captive environment like this. 06:28.000 --> 06:35.000 So we know now if you're going to raise walleye and have a brood stock, you should give them a really cold winter. 06:35.000 --> 06:37.000 To optimize their spawning. 06:37.000 --> 06:41.000 But it also tells us that in the wild cold winters are important. 06:41.000 --> 06:52.000 So these winters where we have ice out in the middle of winter might be really consequential for walleye populations and the success of walleye for spawning in that year. 06:52.000 --> 06:59.000 So that must be very well restrained because obviously fish south of Wisconsin will get ice conditions. 06:59.000 --> 07:05.000 Yeah, absolutely. A lot of people don't realize the really broad distribution of walleye. 07:05.000 --> 07:10.000 Even here in Wisconsin, we're kind of at the southern fringes of core walleye habitat. 07:10.000 --> 07:16.000 But walleye actually are present in Alabama's, so that far south. 07:16.000 --> 07:25.000 And those fish are certainly not getting the same winter cues that they're getting here in Wisconsin or in their core habitat in, say, Central Ontario. 07:26.000 --> 07:30.000 So there's certainly a strain factor at play. 07:30.000 --> 07:39.000 And we are doing some work on figuring out how those different strains respond to changes in climate and warmer water conditions. 07:39.000 --> 07:49.000 We're also seeing what genetic components that these different strains may have that make them more suitable for aquaculture, for food production. 07:49.000 --> 07:55.000 So is it just, I mean, people have talked a little bit about the collapse of walleye in lakes in northern Wisconsin. 07:55.000 --> 07:56.000 Yeah. 07:56.000 --> 08:04.000 How much of that can we tie now with these studies to climate change or lake shore development versus over harvest? 08:04.000 --> 08:16.000 Yeah, it's a really difficult question. It's really hard, especially when you're looking in natural systems, to assign a particular outcome with one individual cause. 08:17.000 --> 08:25.000 The fact of the matter is there's multiple stressors occurring that all in combination lead to these effects that we observe. 08:25.000 --> 08:32.000 What we do know is that walleye populations are struggling in a lot of portions of their range. 08:32.000 --> 08:45.000 And it's likely a combination of spawning habitat degradation, thermal conditions, thermal photo conditions in these lakes shifting to be less favorable for walleye. 08:45.000 --> 08:55.000 And also the trophic structure in lakes shifting to be more favorable for other species such as largemouth baths and less suitable for walleye. 08:55.000 --> 09:02.000 But the reality is all these combinations are acting in concert to have these influences on walleye and they're made a branch. 09:02.000 --> 09:14.000 So when the old thing of just people caught too many or bagged limits or the tribes or whatever they wanted to blame it on, often those were downstream effects. 09:15.000 --> 09:23.000 And sometimes over harvest can still have an effect on walleye and that's why we have our fishing regulations. 09:23.000 --> 09:30.000 And those regulations can change on various lakes depending on what fisheries managers are seeing. 09:30.000 --> 09:38.000 But yeah, by and large, a lot of the challenges that walleye are facing right now are not due to overfishing. 09:38.000 --> 09:47.000 It's due to those changes in photothermal habitat or changes in spawning habitat that we're seeing. 09:47.000 --> 09:59.000 So in some ways is it like Northwoods has gone from wild to a little more cultured as it's become the northern lake home less of the cabin, 09:59.000 --> 10:04.000 where the water's edge and the water's here, the powerboats. 10:04.000 --> 10:09.000 Like just how we use the lakes to change so much that it's changed the lakes and sucks. 10:09.000 --> 10:11.000 Yeah, absolutely. 10:11.000 --> 10:14.000 You mentioned powerboats and that can be an issue. 10:14.000 --> 10:19.000 One of the biggest issues is sedimentation of spawning habitat. 10:19.000 --> 10:25.000 So while I require rocky rip wrap to disperse their eggs, 10:25.000 --> 10:30.000 and that needs to be well-oxygenated for those eggs to develop and ultimately hatch. 10:30.000 --> 10:38.000 And in a lot of systems that have a lot of sediment load, those spawning substrates can get completely covered, 10:38.000 --> 10:43.000 and those eggs no longer have a good well-oxygenated place to develop. 10:43.000 --> 10:49.000 And sometimes those eggs can even be covered by sediment in the right type of system, and that can be really detrimental. 10:49.000 --> 10:52.000 So who's funding all this research? 10:52.000 --> 10:57.000 Yeah, over the years we've had funding from a variety of different sources. 10:57.000 --> 10:59.000 And it depends on the project. 10:59.000 --> 11:04.000 Right now a lot of our funding is coming from Wisconsin Sea Grant through NOAA. 11:04.000 --> 11:10.000 But we've also had funding from the North Central Regional Aquaculture... 11:10.000 --> 11:13.000 Wait, North Central is Nick Rack. 11:13.000 --> 11:16.000 North Central Regional Aquaculture Center. 11:16.000 --> 11:21.000 Yeah, North Central Regional Aquaculture Center through USDA. 11:21.000 --> 11:28.000 And we've also had other sources of funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 11:28.000 --> 11:33.000 and Great Lakes Fisher Commission, and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 11:33.000 --> 11:38.000 So one of the things that we try to look at through the walleye and the research is 11:38.000 --> 11:42.000 how it is that all this money gets poured into this wonderful species. 11:42.000 --> 11:45.000 And what does that say about that species? 11:45.000 --> 11:52.000 It's so desirable, so important that there's all this money from these different places coming in. 11:52.000 --> 12:00.000 Yeah, I mean walleye are tremendously culturally important for really everybody in the region. 12:00.000 --> 12:06.000 It's far and away the most favored sport fish in the upper Midwest. 12:06.000 --> 12:10.000 In my opinion, the best tasting fish that you can get. 12:10.000 --> 12:14.000 So there's a lot of value from a lot of different angles. 12:14.000 --> 12:21.000 And that contributes to why we're funding a lot of the work on developing walleye as an aquaculture species. 12:21.000 --> 12:28.000 And also contributes to why we're spending a lot of research money on figuring out how to conserve this species for the future. 12:28.000 --> 12:30.000 So tell me a little about yourself. 12:30.000 --> 12:33.000 You grew up in the upper Midwest. 12:33.000 --> 12:35.000 Walleye was not a strange species to you? 12:35.000 --> 12:37.000 Yeah, absolutely not. 12:37.000 --> 12:41.000 Grew up fishing walleye, primarily targeting walleye. 12:41.000 --> 12:45.000 And they're far and away my favorite species to fish for. 12:45.000 --> 12:50.000 And I continue to do that to this day, even though I spend a lot of time in the lab studying those fish. 12:50.000 --> 12:53.000 I still go out and try to catch them. 12:53.000 --> 12:57.000 So yeah, I'm no stranger to working with walleye, that's for sure. 12:57.000 --> 12:59.000 Did that make this more desirable? 12:59.000 --> 13:03.000 Or did you know that was going to happen when you took this job? 13:03.000 --> 13:04.000 Yeah, absolutely not. 13:04.000 --> 13:07.000 I didn't know that was going to happen when I took the job. 13:07.000 --> 13:15.000 However, we have the ability to kind of tailor my research program into a direction that interests us. 13:15.000 --> 13:19.000 And walleye is certainly one of the things that really interests me. 13:19.000 --> 13:24.000 Likely because of that exposure I had as a kid, fishing for walleye. 13:24.000 --> 13:36.000 I personally value them quite a bit and really want to see them succeed both as an aquaculture species and as a future angling opportunity for our communities or for my kids. 13:36.000 --> 13:40.000 Does that make the science easier or more? 13:40.000 --> 13:46.000 Because there's a natural scientific drive to find out the answers for things. 13:46.000 --> 13:51.000 But then when there's a personal passion that comes with it, you can understand the importance of getting that answer. 13:51.000 --> 13:53.000 Is there those kind of dovetail? 13:53.000 --> 13:55.000 Those certainly dovetail, yeah. 13:55.000 --> 14:00.000 It makes it more exciting when you really have a passion for the species. 14:00.000 --> 14:04.000 And an interest in that species. 14:04.000 --> 14:09.000 And you've seen those changes in populations over the years in the lakes that you fish. 14:09.000 --> 14:16.000 So there's that personal connection that makes it a lot more fun and interesting to do the research side of it. 14:16.000 --> 14:20.000 And do you know the fish in the tanks here? Does that help you in the lake at all? 14:20.000 --> 14:22.000 Absolutely not. 14:22.000 --> 14:24.000 Yeah, absolutely not. 14:24.000 --> 14:28.000 But it does change how I think about them in the lakes. 14:29.000 --> 14:36.000 Some of the research that we've done here, you know, makes me think about how they're going through reproductive development in the winter. 14:36.000 --> 14:44.000 And a lot of the best research ideas that I have I develop while I'm sitting on a lake fishing forum. 14:44.000 --> 14:49.000 So I understand that one of the new proposals you've got was looking at ponds. 14:49.000 --> 14:50.000 Yeah. 14:50.000 --> 14:53.000 The impact that may have on sex patients, right? 14:53.000 --> 14:59.000 Yeah, there's been some really interesting research into skewed sex ratios. 14:59.000 --> 15:10.000 At one point, the Wisconsin DNR has identified that a lot of the ponds that we're using to raise wildlife for stocking have female skewed sex ratios. 15:10.000 --> 15:15.000 And we don't really have a great handle on what might be causing that. 15:15.000 --> 15:22.000 So we've worked with Redcliffe Tree Natural Resources to put together a proposal to try to dig into that. 15:22.000 --> 15:27.000 That's also in collaboration with Wisconsin DNR and University of St. Thomas. 15:27.000 --> 15:31.000 And what are some of the ideas of why that may be? 15:31.000 --> 15:36.000 Yeah, there's a wide suite of potential causes for that sex ratio skew. 15:36.000 --> 15:45.000 One could be as simple as males take longer to develop their reproductive machinery, right? 15:45.000 --> 15:48.000 So they might not be showing up in those surveys. 15:48.000 --> 15:55.000 So that sex ratio skew could simply be harder to detect males when they're present at that early stage. 15:55.000 --> 15:58.000 It could also be due to temperature. 15:58.000 --> 16:06.000 Our wind ponds that we use to raise wildlife for stocking are often warmer than our online ponds. 16:06.000 --> 16:09.000 And that could contribute to that sex ratio skew. 16:09.000 --> 16:12.000 It could be due to fertilization regimes. 16:12.000 --> 16:19.000 We know that fertilization or nitrate can be an endocrine disruptor in some circumstances. 16:19.000 --> 16:26.000 And it also could be leachate from the liners that are used to line some of these while I rearing ponds. 16:26.000 --> 16:36.000 So we're hoping to dig into all of those potential sources of sex ratio skew and identify which, if any of them, are potential causes. 16:36.000 --> 16:43.000 So talk to me a little bit about how the interaction with NAMACOG and Lake Association, right, that all came about. 16:43.000 --> 16:51.000 Yeah, it's really unique to have a collaboration between a lake association, a tribal natural resources agency, 16:51.000 --> 16:55.000 the Wisconsin DNR and a state university, right? 16:55.000 --> 16:58.000 So it's a really neat project. 16:58.000 --> 17:05.000 It came about because the Lake Association ultimately was looking for somewhere to stock their lake with more wildlife 17:05.000 --> 17:07.000 that they could have more angling opportunities. 17:07.000 --> 17:15.000 And they approached Redcliffe to redcliffe tree natural resources to see if they could raise some wildlife for them. 17:15.000 --> 17:20.000 And Redcliffe has their own stocking that quotas that they need to meet. 17:20.000 --> 17:24.000 And we had some ponds that we were not using at the time. 17:24.000 --> 17:29.000 And it just so happened to work out that we could raise some of those fish for them here. 17:29.000 --> 17:32.000 But we wanted to have a study associated with it. 17:32.000 --> 17:45.000 The study that we came up with is, can we try to figure out if there's any adverse consequences to stocking fish that are raised in indoor systems into the wild. 17:45.000 --> 17:52.000 Right now, it's a lot cheaper to raise wildlife in indoor systems when we're able to give them a pelted feed 17:52.000 --> 17:57.000 and really control other sources of mortality that you can't really control in ponds. 17:57.000 --> 18:06.000 But if those fish that are raised indoors can't really get onto wild forage when they're stocked out, then it might not be a great option. 18:06.000 --> 18:16.000 So the study is looking at relative success of pond raised wildlife that are stocked into the lake compared to indoor raised wildlife that are stocked into the lake. 18:16.000 --> 18:26.000 And right now, Glyphlic is actually doing surveys on Lake Namacogen to look at the relative returns of our indoor and outdoor stocked fish. 18:26.000 --> 18:29.000 And really, it's a fin clip, right? 18:29.000 --> 18:39.000 Yes, so we gave all of our indoor fish a right ventral fin clip and all of our outdoor raised fish a left ventral fin clip. 18:39.000 --> 18:48.000 So we'll be able to see what proportion of those fish return in our population assessment in Namacogen. 18:48.000 --> 18:51.000 And how long will that take before you feel confident? 18:51.000 --> 19:05.000 Well, we've been stocking Namacogen with these right and left ventral fin-cooked fish for five years now, so we should have a good idea with this survey, what those relative returns are. 19:05.000 --> 19:09.000 So really, we'll have our results in two weeks here. 19:09.000 --> 19:21.000 It'll take a while to do the data analysis, of course, and I'll have limited bandwidth and how quickly I can dig into that data, but yeah, it'll be that quick. 19:21.000 --> 19:26.000 Because we were with Glyphlic last fall when they're doing their year of year of year on the survey. 19:26.000 --> 19:29.000 That's when they're actually looking for them, right? 19:29.000 --> 19:34.000 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 19:34.000 --> 19:37.000 Perfect. 19:37.000 --> 19:43.000 So with that survey, I mean, obviously they need that, but that's all of these things that are done together, right? 19:43.000 --> 19:54.000 Yeah, I mean, really, the research and management of our fisheries is a really big coordinated effort between tribal natural resources agencies, 19:54.000 --> 20:00.000 University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and other state universities, and Wisconsin DNR. 20:00.000 --> 20:08.000 And there's a lot of different field crews and a lot of different researchers that are involved in that coordinated effort, so it's really neat. 20:08.000 --> 20:11.000 So do you remember what some of the numbers are from last year? 20:11.000 --> 20:14.000 Are we here when you were able to stop and get them started? 20:14.000 --> 20:15.000 I don't. 20:15.000 --> 20:17.000 On the top of my head. 20:17.000 --> 20:29.000 I want to say that last year we stocked somewhere around 10,000 fish from our ponds and closer to five or six thousand fish from indoors. 20:29.000 --> 20:30.000 Okay. 20:30.000 --> 20:32.000 So obviously they have a factory. 20:32.000 --> 20:37.000 Yes, we account for the differential numbers that were stocked when we're doing an analysis. 20:37.000 --> 20:39.000 We were out there with you last year. 20:39.000 --> 20:40.000 We were like, we have no idea. 20:40.000 --> 20:41.000 Is there any question there? 20:41.000 --> 20:42.000 How do you think? 20:42.000 --> 20:43.000 Right. 20:43.000 --> 20:44.000 Yeah. 20:44.000 --> 20:57.000 I do know that Glyphwick has captured two thousand plus fish already, and they have found clips from both indoors and outdoors in their survey. 20:57.000 --> 21:02.000 I don't know the relative proportion yet, so that'll be the data we dig into here in the next couple of weeks. 21:02.000 --> 21:06.000 I mean, how exciting is it for you to get that data back? 21:06.000 --> 21:11.000 Because there's one thing to be able to raise them and release them, but then to get that in? 21:11.000 --> 21:12.000 Yeah. 21:12.000 --> 21:21.000 I mean, it's tremendously exciting, especially for projects like that where there's a five-year buildup to getting those final results, right? 21:21.000 --> 21:27.000 So there's a lot that went into being able to see the final results of the study. 21:27.000 --> 21:31.000 So it's very exciting to finally do that final survey. 21:31.000 --> 21:45.000 Do you think that the average fisherman angler, the person that goes up in the boat, who goes alone in the water, has any idea about all different groups, agencies, and people trying to make sure there's a fish in the form? 21:45.000 --> 21:46.000 Yeah. 21:46.000 --> 21:57.000 I would anticipate that the average angler probably doesn't have a good idea of how big of a coordinated effort it is to manage walleye populations and figure out stocking regimes. 21:57.000 --> 22:08.000 But I hope that they do because it's really a cool process and it's something that I think a lot of people would value if they knew how much work went into it. 22:08.000 --> 22:13.000 So there are questions about whether it's worth it to stop fish at all. 22:13.000 --> 22:14.000 Yeah. 22:14.000 --> 22:18.000 Give them the amount of money, time, and expense versus a return. 22:18.000 --> 22:21.000 Some lakes where natives don't thrive. 22:21.000 --> 22:25.000 It's a question of, if that's not a walleye lake, why should you put more walleye in it? 22:25.000 --> 22:29.000 That would be a good fanfish or it must be a bastard. 22:29.000 --> 22:30.000 Yeah. 22:30.000 --> 22:31.000 Yeah. 22:31.000 --> 22:34.000 I mean, there certainly is that argument to be made. 22:34.000 --> 22:42.000 And in some cases, that's the decision that the DNR makes is, you know, that lake is going to be a panfish lake or something like that. 22:42.000 --> 22:50.000 But there is still some value to stocking lakes that no longer support natural walleye reproduction as a put and take opportunity. 22:50.000 --> 22:58.000 Because if we let all of the walleye lakes that no longer support natural reproduction go by the wayside, 22:58.000 --> 23:07.000 we're simply going to lose a lot of the opportunities to catch walleye that we once had, especially in the southern portions of the state. 23:07.000 --> 23:11.000 So there is still value to supporting put and take fisheries. 23:11.000 --> 23:19.000 And hopefully going forward, we can address some of the issues that are causing that lake to no longer support natural reproduction. 23:19.000 --> 23:27.000 What would be lost if walleye were, you know, who's Winnebago and the wolf, you know, that that city, that system seems fine. 23:27.000 --> 23:28.000 Re-basings, I'll be. 23:28.000 --> 23:31.000 And just, you know, that's where walleye are. 23:31.000 --> 23:34.000 And the state is just what it is. 23:34.000 --> 23:35.000 Yeah. 23:35.000 --> 23:48.000 I think that we'd still, we'd still have a lot of lost by losing those opportunities in a variety of lakes because not everybody gets to experience that fishing 23:48.000 --> 23:53.000 in those water bodies that do currently support natural reproduction, right? 23:53.000 --> 24:02.000 So making those opportunities more available to more groups of people that wouldn't otherwise have them still has a lot of value, I think. 24:02.000 --> 24:07.000 I mean, you've experienced catching fish as a kid. Do you remember your first walleye? 24:07.000 --> 24:15.000 I don't remember my first walleye, but I do remember a lot of really memorable walleye. 24:15.000 --> 24:24.000 Some of the pictures I've provided you are from some of my more memorable walleyes that I still have very core memories of catching as a kid. 24:24.000 --> 24:27.000 And it's different than fish. 24:27.000 --> 24:32.000 It is. It really is. 24:32.000 --> 24:37.000 First of all, walleye are just a really, really neat fish. 24:37.000 --> 24:42.000 They have these really captivating eyes as is their namesake. 24:42.000 --> 24:49.000 That's fun to watch, and they fight different than a panfish, and they taste different than a panfish too. 24:49.000 --> 24:54.000 Being able to put all of those components together just makes them different, right? 24:54.000 --> 25:01.000 I mean, when you think about the loss of walleye, would that be more painful economically or more painful culturally? 25:01.000 --> 25:11.000 Man, yeah. I mean, I think both, frankly, we know that a lot of anglers in this area specifically fish to target walleye, right? 25:11.000 --> 25:18.000 So there would be a tremendous economic loss if we lost walleye angling opportunities. 25:18.000 --> 25:25.000 But culturally, it is almost more of a loss in my opinion. 25:25.000 --> 25:32.000 Both for the communities that historically have had a lot of importance placed on walleye. 25:32.000 --> 25:37.000 But also for those who haven't experienced angling for them yet, right? 25:37.000 --> 25:45.000 You know, I want future generations to be able to catch walleye and experience the same thing I did as a kid when they're going out fishing for them. 25:45.000 --> 25:54.000 So, best case scenario, how many years in the future before it's realistic to see farm raised walleye available in this world? 25:54.000 --> 26:01.000 Best case scenario, you can actually buy farm raised walleye right now if you want. 26:01.000 --> 26:09.000 There's now three walleye aquaculture operations in the state that we're helping get started and supporting. 26:09.000 --> 26:21.000 And hopefully that just builds to the point where you can go to your supermarket or your fish fry at your local restaurant and get walleye that were raised right here in Wisconsin. 26:21.000 --> 26:26.000 And maybe that'll happen in the next five years, maybe ten years. 26:26.000 --> 26:29.000 It's also possible it'll never happen and never take off. 26:29.000 --> 26:36.000 There's a lot of challenges facing aquaculture in the state that are independent of the species being raised. 26:36.000 --> 26:42.000 So we hope that the research that we're doing is going to help make this more possible. 26:42.000 --> 26:49.000 But that's the risk of doing this research on a brand new species for aquaculture. 26:49.000 --> 26:51.000 Is that it might not work out? 26:51.000 --> 26:56.000 So what is it for you to come to work here when you see the eggs? 26:56.000 --> 27:04.000 I mean, you verbalize the eggs, you're stripping the eggs and then you see them, I mean, is this how weird to say they're an attachment to these fish? 27:04.000 --> 27:12.000 No, it's not weird to say that there's an attachment to these fish because it's a very hands-on and involved process. 27:12.000 --> 27:19.000 And myself and the other staff here at NADF are very involved in that process. 27:19.000 --> 27:27.000 As you said, everything from spawning these fish and taking care of them through the larval culture period, 27:27.000 --> 27:35.000 raising them up to the age where they're reproductively mature, we have to help them at every step of that journey. 27:35.000 --> 27:43.000 And yeah, as a result, we have a lot of investment and feel a lot of kind of pride in the fish that we've helped raise. 27:43.000 --> 27:47.000 And the studies and research that we're doing to help make it possible. 27:47.000 --> 27:53.000 So when you're trading the ponds, because you really don't know what's in there, what's that do you like for you? 27:53.000 --> 27:55.000 You've made it a fish. 27:55.000 --> 28:04.000 It's tremendously stressful because a lot of work has gone into raising those walleye before we get to that stage 28:04.000 --> 28:06.000 where we're harvesting those ponds. 28:06.000 --> 28:12.000 And you don't get to see what the results of all that labor and work is until that day when you start training. 28:12.000 --> 28:19.000 So it's very stressful and hopefully very rewarding, but we've had years where it's been very disappointing too. 28:19.000 --> 28:23.000 And that's just how it goes. That's how it is raising fish generally. 28:23.000 --> 28:28.000 But there's also a lot of volunteers, like the community that gets built around this. 28:28.000 --> 28:40.000 That's one of the great parts of it is we try to set up our harvest days and stocking days in a way that the community can make that connection 28:40.000 --> 28:47.000 with the work that Red Cliff treating natural resources and ourselves in Wisconsin DNR are doing. 28:47.000 --> 28:52.000 Oftentimes anglers don't get to have that hands-on experience with those fish. 28:52.000 --> 28:58.000 And I think it's really valuable when they're involved in collecting them out of the ponds, doing those fin clips, 28:58.000 --> 29:02.000 and putting them back into the lake that they're going to fish later that day. 29:02.000 --> 29:06.000 That's a really unique experience that helps drive home the importance of it. 29:06.000 --> 29:10.000 Different connection, I'm sure, for them. I know there's fish in here. 29:10.000 --> 29:16.000 Yeah, and I might have handled that fish and gave it the fin clip before I catch it three years later. 29:16.000 --> 29:18.000 That's a really cool connection. 29:18.000 --> 29:22.000 What is that normal timeline for a fish up here? 29:22.000 --> 29:29.000 Yeah, I mean, it's when we're stocking the fish that were raised in the ponds or indoors, 29:29.000 --> 29:37.000 we're generally stocking them at eight or nine inches in the October and November of the year that they were raised. 29:37.000 --> 29:45.000 And it's potential, or it's possible that you would catch that fish in two years after it was stocked. 29:45.000 --> 29:47.000 You know, you might see that. 29:47.000 --> 29:52.000 And it's probably reproductively mature three or four years after that. 29:52.000 --> 29:58.000 So some of those first fish are now reproducing, hopefully, naturally. 29:58.000 --> 30:01.000 Yeah, and they're some trophy fish. 30:01.000 --> 30:07.000 Absolutely, yeah. You can go in Lake Anambicoggan and catch, especially some of our earlier years of stocking. 30:07.000 --> 30:12.000 You can catch some of those fish right now, and if it has a left or right ventral fin clip, 30:12.000 --> 30:15.000 you know that it came from here as part of that study. 30:15.000 --> 30:16.000 So cool. 30:16.000 --> 30:17.000 Yeah. 30:17.000 --> 30:20.000 All right, I think we're good here. 30:20.000 --> 30:21.000 Okay. 30:21.000 --> 30:25.000 I would like it if you can get me some numbers. 30:25.000 --> 30:26.000 You can email that. 30:26.000 --> 30:27.000 It's probably easiest. 30:27.000 --> 30:28.000 Yeah, yeah, for the. 30:28.000 --> 30:30.000 We were able to do the indoor and outdoor last year. 30:30.000 --> 30:31.000 Yeah. 30:31.000 --> 30:34.000 And I actually have that for all five years. 30:34.000 --> 30:35.000 Oh, work. 30:35.000 --> 30:36.000 Yeah. 30:36.000 --> 30:41.000 And potentially, like I said, we'll be getting the returns. 30:41.000 --> 30:47.000 And I can try to analyze that data quickly so that you can have the results of that study to share. 30:47.000 --> 30:53.000 I would say I'll be writing this through May and June. 30:53.000 --> 30:54.000 Okay. 30:54.000 --> 30:55.000 But there can be.