The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking to crowdsource solutions that will prevent exposure to blue-green algae from delaying catfish harvesting. Those who come up with innovative solutions can share a $60,000 award.
The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service launched the competition, “Protecting the Natural Flavor of Catfish,” on HeroX, an online crowdsourcing platform, last week.
The submission deadline is 4 p.m. Dec. 15. Winners will be announced March 2, 2021.
According to three decades of research from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, farm-raised catfish exposed to compounds stemming from varieties of blue-green algae in ponds can develop an “earthy” or “muddy” flavor. If a sampled fish has an off-flavor taste, farmers will delay harvesting for weeks or months in order to wait and retest the fish or to remove the algae.
“It’s an issue this industry has had. Of course the way we combat this is to flavor check the ponds,” said Solon Scott III, president of America’s Catch, a fish processor in Itta Bena that also works on the farming side. “It certainly makes for a logistical nightmare trying to schedule harvest around flavor.”
Scott said catfish are sampled at America’s Catch’s facility for a flavor check. For a small percentage of catfish ponds, harvesting could be delayed for about a year, though delays in general are usually only a month or two months, he said.
The algae, which grow naturally in catfish ponds, emit chemicals into the water that get into the meat of the catfish, Scott said. Once there, it takes a while for the fish to process the chemical out.
Dr. Jeff Silverstein, deputy administrator for animal production and protection at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and a spokesman for the USDA’s project, said different methods have been utilized to prevent catfish from being exposed to the compounds.
One method is to put either algicide or another type of fish, such as tilapia, in catfish ponds to reduce the amount of algae. However, over the long term, these solutions aren’t perfect, Silverstein said.
Farmers raise catfish to a certain size before selling it to a processor, such as America’s Catch, Scott said. If a sampled batch of catfish doesn’t taste right, then the farmer will hold off on selling the fish to wait for the exposure to wear off. However, the catfish could then get too big for the processor or die in the pond due to delayed harvesting, Scott said.
“That’s the issue in the industry. It’s a problem for the farmer and the processor,” he said.
Catfish harvest delays cost the industry around $20 million a year, according to the USDA.
A grand total of up to $60,000 will be awarded to the challenge’s top nine respondents, according to the USDA.
First place and up to two second-place winners will be recognized in each of the following three categories:
• Pre-harvest management practices.
• Pre-harvest treatment technologies.
• Post-harvest treatment technologies.
Interested competitors must be 18 or older and can participate as individuals or on teams. Competitors and teams may originate from any country.
To participate in the challenge or learn more, go to herox.com/catfish.
“This kind of crowdsourcing to solve a problem is an innovative and new approach. There’s been work on improving the harvest efficiency and not delaying the harvest to these off-flavor problems for decades,” Silverstein said. “We’re looking at whether we can open this up to a broader universe of problem solvers.”
• Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
