The Salmonid and Freshwater Fish Research Laboratory

Description of Work:

The award established a multidisciplinary aquaculture research laboratory at the UI’s Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station in Hagerman, Idaho. The Salmonid and Freshwater Fish Research Laboratory, recently renamed as a Center, focuses on threatened and endangered fish species. Competitive, externally funded collaborative research in the genetics and biology of species at risk continues. Research partners with Hagerman now include 19 federal, state and tribal agencies. This partnering also helped form the foundation for a NSF Partnerships for Innovation award (EHR-0090635). In 2000, UI funded $1.7 million in additional laboratory infrastructure strengthening at the Hagerman Station making it a near world-class facility with a national and international reputation.

Outcomes/Impacts:

(1) Genetics and biology research provides scientific conservation information to state and tribal fisheries and resource managers. (2) Genetics and cryopreservation workshops have doubled in number (now 10 total) and now include participants from three states, Idaho, Washington and Arkansas. (3) A now completed interpretive center and a high school student aquaculture outreach program engages both tourists and the extended school systems in southwestern Idaho regarding the need for conservation of fisheries as well habitat. (4) The Distinguished Research Professorship continues. (5) The Center site, Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station, was originally acquired via a long term lease from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with NSF EPSCoR funds supporting the first year lease. The Station plus all infrastructure was deeded by the U.S. government to the UI in 2000.

Principal Citation:

Paragamian, V.L., M.S.Powell, J.C. Faler, and S. Snelson. 1999 Mitochondrial DNA analysis of burbot Lota lota stocks in the Kootenai River Basin of British Columbia, Montana and Idaho. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc 128:868-874.

Subsequent Grants and Honors:

The Center has won $3.4 million in competitive research funding since the end of the cited EPSCoR award from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Department of Engineering, and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

 

Award Number: EPS 9632684	Project Term: 1996 to 1998

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