News from the Noteworthy

Freshwater Aquaculture: Raising Fish on a Hilltop

What grass is to dairy, water is to aquaculture. At Skytop Springs Fish Farm, on a sylvan hillside in Sidney Center, the Sellitti family works with nature’s offering—pristine water from multiple springs and wells. Twenty-five gallons a minute run through a series of artificial ponds, then huge tanks, and finally to holding ponds, where solids settle out and the water is returned to the land.

This is a zero waste farm. The inputs are fish eggs, water and fish feed. The outputs are compost, water, and fish—approximately 5,000 pounds of rainbow trout are sold annually as whole cleaned fish, filets, or smoked filets to restaurants, at farmers’ markets, or directly from the farm. The trout variety is Kamloops, hatched from certified disease-free eggs from a Pacific Northwest provider. They are hatched once a year—then staged through larger bodies of water as they grow. The eggs are sterile, posing no genetic threat to the local fish population should an egg or fish escape.

The farm uses no antibiotics, growth hormones, chemicals or artificial ingredients in any aspect of the raising or preparation of their trout. The fish have been lab tested to show they contain no heavy metals such as mercury, nor any microplastics found in some wild caught seafood.

It takes 18 months to grow fish to the preferred 1 to 1.5 pound market size, and it is revealing how efficiently fish build protein. Of various sources of animal protein consumed in our culture, fish has the lowest conversion ratio: a measure of the smallest amount of feed required to produce a unit of edible product. Why? Because fish are cold blooded and don’t have to deal with gravity—energy sapping issues the rest of us face.

As with any farm there are risks to minimize. Tanks and ponds need to be protected from sunlight, debris, and predators. Freezing is not an issue, indoors or out, as the water is always kept moving. But a loss of power cutting off circulation and aeration pumps would be disastrous. Thus, the farm has two backup generator systems.

Skytop Springs is one of only two land-based freshwater aquaculture operations in New York to be in the New York State Grown & Certified program—recognized for farm-safe food handling and environmentally responsible practices. What is unique about Skytop is they not only raise the trout, but they also process, smoke, and go direct to market with it—as a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation licensed trout producer and United States Department of Agriculture/Food and Drug Administration Seafood Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point certified processor. The addition of a processing facility adds complexity, but also enhances the value of their product.

Of all types of farming done in upstate New York, aquaculture is one of the most demanding of a farmer’s ingenuity and attention to detail. At Skytop Springs Farm, the Sellitti family is creating a new model of economically and environmentally sustainable food production.

Authored by Sustainable Otsego. Since 2007 we have promoted ecologically sound practices—locally, regionally and nationally. Our platform calls for sustainable living, economic independence and home rule. Please visit us at sustainableotsego.net or facebook.com/SustainableOtsego.