Sparsholt College ready to play significant role in aquaculture industry

To date Sparsholt is the only UK based college allocated a grant which is part of a five year, £38million project aimed to ensure the UK’s fishing industry becomes more sustainable and remains profitable.

The award, to re-build the College Fish Hatchery, will ensure those looking to train and ultimately pursue a career in the aquaculture sector can do so in industry standard facilities.

Caroline James, learning manager for fishery studies at Sparsholt College said: “Such a significant grant recognises the importance of ensuring that the next generation looking to pursue a career in this sector do so with the appropriate qualifications acquired in facilities which mirror that of industry.”

Primarily the hatchery will be us as an educational facility however the design and the usage will enable the College to exploit many other opportunities to both enhance student experience and generate income. The hatchery has significant potential as a research facility and for educational development to expand the current range of R&D trials as well as supporting some Environment Agency work and local fishery re-stocking programme. The research opportunities have enormous educational potential for MSc and PhD work which the College is currently unable to offer. The plan also incorporates a small-scale commercial aquaculture unit to produce table fish to expose students to this aspect of the aquaculture industry.

At Sparsholt there is already the unique National Aquatics Training Centre for work with ornamental fish and warm water aquaculture species such as carp, catfish, tilapia and barramundi.