Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A new doctoral program in aquaculture and fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff was approved today by the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The board endorsed the new program during a meeting in Mountain Home. The program also was endorsed by ADHE Interim Director Shane Broadway and his staff.

School officials hope to enroll the first students into the program this fall.

UAPB’s program, according to an ADHE news release, has tremendous support from the state’s aquaculture industry. Arkansas’ $167 million industry has a total economic impact on the state of more than $440 million per year, including money that recirculates in the economy, the board heard.

“The Aquaculture/Fisheries Center of Excellence at UAPB is recognized as a leader in aquaculture/fisheries teaching, research and extension programs,” board spokeswoman Brandi Hinkle said in a news release.

Created in 1988, it combines resident instruction, research and extension responsibilities into one unit. The center has 47 faculty and staff, including 17 Ph.D. scientists.

Types of fish used in UAPB’s research range from catfish and minnows to goldfish. Students gain knowledge on ecology, pathology, production and marketing.

According to the state Department of Agriculture’s website, Arkansas is the birthplace of warm-water aquaculture in the U.S.

The state’s first commercial farms in the 1940s raised goldfish.

Arkansas’ aquaculture industry has diversified into more than 20 species of fish and crustaceans, according to the department’s website.