Saddle Up, Bub! A San Antonio Special on ARI's Aquaculture Endeavors

Corinne

Welcome back to "Salty Talks," where we explore aquaculture innovation and the science that sustains it. I'm your host, Corinne Noufi, and today we are taking a deep dive into the Aquaculture Research Institute's multifaceted approach to sustainable aquaculture.

I’m recording down in San Antonio at the World Aquaculture Society Conference, showcasing ARI's commitment to interdisciplinary research and its vital role in advancing the industry through the synergy of science, sustainability, and education in aquaculture.

Let's meet our panel of experts, each bringing a unique perspective to the table:

Sarah

Hi, I'm Sarah Turner. I'm a research specialist with the Aquatic Animal Health Lab in cooperative extension in the Aquaculture Research Institute. And I'm also a PhD candidate defending in, like two weeks. Well, I have a lot of experience in aquatic animal health as far as like disease goes. But also my PhD is on developing novel adjuvants for vaccine systems using sustainable biopolymers.

Matt

I'm Matt Hoggard. I'm an assistant extension professor in finfish nutrition specialist. I have a joint appointment with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and with the Aquaculture Research Institute. Uh, my, I think it's the best I've ever actually said that. My research is largely based on fish nutrition. I work in early life history of marine fish. So how do we better deliver nutrients to the to the smallest and kind of most vulnerable of the of these finfish species? And then secondly, I work in like, alternative feeds. Uh, you know, how do we look at challenges like replacing fishmeal and fish oil with more sustainable alternatives?

Bobby

Hi, everybody. Yeah, I'm Bobby Moorfield. Um, and I have been working with ARI for quite a few years. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow. It's the. First time I've said that publicly. Um, um, working in Heather Hamlin's lab and for my doctoral research, I worked on sea lice and looking at the biology and ecology of sea lice in order to further different aspects of mitigation. Currently, I'm working on Broodstock, so I've either moved up or down the food chain. I'm not really sure what I've decided yet, but I'm working on the salmon. So I'm I'm looking at the embryology and broodstock and their different aspects of variabilities and really this early stage of domestication. And so was there another part of that question? I get it all. All right.

Debbie

So again, I'm Debbie. Um, and other than being the director of the Aquaculture Research Institute, I'm also an aquatic animal health specialist. I've been working with the industry and disease diagnosis research, contract research, working with pharmaceutical companies to develop, you know, a, you know, aquatic animal health therapeutics and treatments. I work with Sarah, and that's what we do.

Nathan

Hi everyone. My name is Nathan Smith. I'm a PhD candidate in the ecology and environmental sciences department at UMaine. I work with Ari pretty squarely in the human dimensions of recirculating aquaculture system development in Maine and throughout the United States. Using mixed methods, approaches, qualitative, quantitative and spatial approaches to advise site selection.

Scarlett

I'm Scarlett Tudor, I'm an education and outreach coordinator, both for Cooperative Extension for H. And the Aquaculture Research Institute. Um, I'm a first generation student. I'm actually from Appalachia, and I'm A 4H alumni that took my fish to the state fair. So these are sort of where my interests go. My position, I really work in education. Um, and I work with a spectrum of people. I really work with kids from six years old, all the way up to people wanting to make a career change. I have a group of women that I work with that I love working with, and that we really are able to look at the diversity of what aquaculture is and engage people in that, whether it's skill sets, development for the industry or just simply seafood education, so that people understand where our seafood is coming from, the sustainability of that. In addition, I'm also sort of an oddball up here. I'm an animal behaviorist, so my PhD is in reproductive signals, but I do some research with Heather Hamlin looking at contaminants and how contaminants influence fish reproduction. And again, that research program that we run is really to engage undergraduate students to make research accessible. Um, and we are working in a whole bunch of diverse communities. We work with immigrant communities in Maine that have come for blueberries or other reasons. Um, and working with those kids in aquaponics, we have micro-credentials that we offer that will be online and accessible to anyone by the end of the year. And we have these micro-credentials from the University of Maine that, again, are for youth to create these seamless pathways for all types of people to engage with the industry, again, whether that's consumer education or skill sets development.

Corinne

ARI's strength lies in its interdisciplinary nature, where diverse fields converge to address the complex challenges of aquaculture. This collaboration not only accelerates innovation but also ensures our research directly benefits the industry, helping to solve real-world problems and fostering a sustainable future for the aquaculture sector.

Debbie

I'd like to just define multidisciplinary versus interdisciplinary. So Ari has affiliates that we consider multidisciplinary, I mean, across many different, you know, educational realms. But interdisciplinary means that we take their skills and our skills and come and work together and then address the industry and try to move that needle towards, you know, helping them solve problems.

Math

Uh, yeah. So raise your hand if you're an expert of all things in aquaculture. Okay. For those of you listening at home on the podcast, everyone in the room raises their hand. Now, of course, of course not. None of us are experts in all things aquaculture. And so interdisciplinary work is extremely important. And this work with industry is essential because as a researcher, I'm never going to have the impact on society as a researcher that I really think needs to happen. Right? We need to feed people 500 years into the future, right? I mean, certainly, like, I love the speaker this morning, seven generations is how she's thinking about feeding people. And we all need to think about this. And like in terms of seven generations. And that's a challenge I try to bring to my work. I'm not going to be able to feed seven generations of people. It's going to be an industry that feeds seven generations of people. So we have to address their problems and do it in a meaningful way so we can actually move this needle.

Scarlett

And so I would even add to that. I think there's a real importance, sort of like we heard from the plenary speaker today, listening to tribal nations and industry and using Western science altogether, I think, will allow us to create more sustainable solutions in our industry in all of its sectors.

Sarah

My PhD research is an interdisciplinary project collaborating with biomedical engineers, you know, in many different disciplines. We've reached a point in just knowledge where we're very siloed and coming together, combining our skill sets and our knowledge in a synergistic way can really help, uh, you know, advance that growth and industry and research in a big and impactful way.

Corinne

Throughout this panel, the word "sustainability" kept weaving its way into many answers, underscoring its importance in ARI's approach. Sustainability is a core value that runs through all of our research endeavors. From developing alternative feeds to exploring disease mitigation strategies, our work is guided by maintaining ecological balance and ensuring the long-term viability of aquaculture practices..

And this extends beyond the environmental aspects to encompass social dimensions as well. This holistic approach to sustainability, including environmental, economic, and social pillars, is crucial for the industry's future.

Nathan

Uh, one of our sort of goals is to just track and document those risk perceptions and even the benefit perceptions associated with Rask. So creating sort of a typology of what people think will happen versus what actually happens. So we work to sort of iron this out. And I think that's really critical because there's evolving risks. There's adjacent issues like fisheries that come into play for wrasse. And so for us it's just sort of keeping track of all of that stuff that's really important. So we kind of inform what people think about all those hings.

Bobby

Yeah. A little more in the weeds on that. Uh, the work I did regarding sea lice and salmon lice trying to move away from a reactionary response to this past, uh, using pesticides and things like that and move more towards, uh, sustainable ways to slow down reproduction and do it in a non-toxic, you know, healthy way for the environment, developing integrated pest management systems that are more akin to the framework used by terrestrial agriculture, I think, is a way to develop not only our high value salmon aquaculture, but to give a framework for, you know, other countries and and other places for maybe less value products to develop other methodologies that are more sustainable. So not only within our framework and our little silo of our species that we're working on, but to really develop it for, you know, generations as a, as at this stage of aquaculture and it's almost infancy. And it's in a way, um, I think that's really important.

Scarlett

So one of the new programs that we have at R.I. is called the Aqueous Program. This program is really designed to create internship or fellowship-like opportunities for students that take Western science and indigenous knowledge and start to co-create research objectives and questions that we're trying to address. And again, I think really when we're talking about sustainability, if we do not have indigenous peoples at the table with an actual voice that we listen to, we're not going to get anywhere. And I think the reality is even, you know, we kind of saw this this morning the importance of oral history and that scientists haven't been measuring and documenting things as long as indigenous peoples have evolved in these landscapes that we now call home, or Maine or all the places that we live. And so this program, I think, has been really valuable. I mean I do believe there are places where the industry can benefit, Western science can benefit, and that we can also start doing a better job at conserving environments. I mean, just as like a factoid, how much of our biodiversity do you think sits on indigenous controlled lands? So think about your state and where's the reservations and how small are they? 80% of our current biodiversity sits in the hands of indigenous peoples, and they are the ones preserving it. So again, I think that really highlights the importance as Western scientists, we have to come out of our comfort zone a little bit and think about how broadly we do research and what that information means.

Matt

I love sitting at this table because we all have very different kind of research niches and all all these tools are necessary to get to a more, you know, sustainable industry in the long run, which is really our goal. So the two that that we work on in the nutrition department, one is I already mentioned, you know, this need to replace fishmeal and fish oil. It's not really a replacement. It's it's really doing as much as we can with what we have. Right? I mean, the reality is that fish meals, they don't predict that's going to disappear in our lifetimes. What's happening is it's just not growing. It hasn't grown in quite a while. You know, they projected basically is going to be flatline for decades to come. And that's assuming we have pretty well managed fisheries.. But you know, we've aquaculture has been the most rapid food growing industry, uh, you know, over the last few decades. You can really see it now produces about half of the seafood that that on earth that people are eating. And that growth has been written on the backs of, uh, fish on the backside. I'm sorry. Maybe terrible term, but but it has been, um, what? On the fins, on the dorsal of, uh, of, you know, of this fishmeal production. And so really to continue to expand, to be able to move from, you know, when my dad was born, there were, I think, two, 2 billion people on the planet. We just broke 8 billion people a couple of years ago. We're probably going to hit nine. You know, that's where people are thinking. And also we have raising quality of lives you know, that's what should be a goal of society. So how do we get there and how do we do that with this limited resource. So so to do that we really need to look at all different, you know, ingredients that we can use in fish feeds to continue to have a fed fish industry. And people mostly eat fish. but really American consumers are mostly fin fish eaters. Uh, and then secondly, I just wanted to hit I do a lot of early life history things. Um, and a lot of that revolves around marine finfish eat our Artemia. They're reliant on things like rotifers and Artemia in their early life stages. The great salt lakes are disappearing folks, it's going away. Look at the last five years of fishery of wild captured Artemia cysts. It really has gone down and it's getting pretty scary actually. So for the marine finfish industry to continue to exist and evolve, we're really going to have to look at things that don't rely on at least Artemia. There may be other live feeds that we can look at. Certainly that's one aspect of, uh, early life nutrition, but also microencapsulated diets, better delivery of nutrients. Looking at how we actually make these smallest particles on Earth to feed the smallest vertebrates on Earth?

Bobby

Um, I, for one, had no idea that sea monkeys were wild caught. I did not know that. I learned something amazing. Yeah. I did not know that.

Scarlett

Yeah. It puts a new perspective on that little thank you guys.

Corinne

And because we have so many Aquatic animal health specialists on todays panel I really wanted to highlight how our research in disease management and vaccine development is paving the way for healthier aquatic populations and, ultimately, a more resilient aquaculture sector within a changing climate

Bobby

I would suspect that. The short answer is we don't fully know. Um, and, you know, everything is in such flux right now between RA systems being the goal or open ocean net pens being the goal, or a hybrid system being the goal. So when developing a breeding program, you know your industry focuses on growth. So it's all focused on growth. But energy budgets are malleable and there's variability in there. And so one of the things that we're working on we're really just in the infancy of this project. But we're focused on we literally just finished up on two before this week I was like had a full beard. I was sitting in an environmental chamber hissing at strangers. It was uh, it was a mess. We just. Yeah, it's true, it's true. Um, but yeah. So, uh, what I'm looking at there is looking at different lineages of broodstock and their temperature tolerance. So which which I think is a really important aspect that is, is fairly overlooked. So regardless of how we end up rearing fish, incorporating their their tolerance to temperature changes and not just, uh, a ramp up of temperature, we think of climate change is the slow growth of degrees when for a fish, especially in an open ocean system, uh, longer and higher heat waves are a big deal. So a week of super high heat waves where the fish can't sink down low or move to get out of the heat is going to be a big deal. And if we're breeding fish at optimal temperature to get eggs to all become as as, uh, likely to survive as possible, we're weeding out potentially some of this, this variability in temperature tolerance. So, um, I feel like I've lost the thread of the question. Um, but I can I could circle back. Yeah, yeah. And so, uh, breeding. Yeah. Um, we're breeding for growth. That's what you do with the domesticated species, uh, when you're breeding it for, you know, for market, for industry. And so but what are, what are the trade offs that you're, you're taking away from there. And that's some of the things that we're looking at. We did an ungodly amount of endpoints on a whole bunch of families this last winter looking at respiration, temperature tolerance, heart rates, growth. And so really we have a lot of data to sit around and crunch. But hopefully by next year I'll have some more concrete answers.

Debbie

I think all the things you mentioned are paramount to keep a Sustainable aquaculture industry growing and one form isn't better than another. Whether you're in the open body of water or whether you're in a recirculating agriculture system. But what you're looking at for the growth efficiency in those animals may be different. Aquatic animal health. With the climate changing, they'll always be new and emerging pathogens. That's the way life works. So I don't think the Aquaculture Research Institute will ever run out of things to do research on, but it would be nice to get a win on occasion.

Matt

Yeah, just to plug the aquatic animal health side of things. You know, when you look at antibiotic use over the last, you know, 30 years in the industry, this really comes out of the data that comes out of Norway. But, you know, you really see that antibiotic use was really high in the 19 late 80s, early 90s. And it really there's a major drop in that and that that really is a result of vaccine development. And really we have changed, you know, how we think about aquatic animal health in more of a holistic approach and and then plus, you know, animals moving around the Caps program, the sort of thing. So it's a multi-pronged approach. But really that that limited, limited use of antibiotics is, I think, a really important component to having a sustainable industry and, and really gives us something to be proud of when we compare ourselves to other areas of agriculture.

Sarah

I would just add, looking forward as far as vaccines go, you know, with Covid, the research in human and terrestrial mammals has exploded and keeping aquaculture up to date with with that, um, I think is going to be important moving forward.

Matt

Did I look like I was gonna say something? Well, let's just see here. Awkward. Uh, no. You know, another another project we've got going on that. I'll just. I just think it's kind of fun. Uh, we're working on lungfish, uh, as, uh. Well, working with the USDA and National Coldwater marine fisheries. Uh, jeez, I lost it. Sorry. Cold water, uh, culture center, um, in Franklin. And so, uh, in developing a fish program. And so we're, uh, right now working on more of the nutritional side, developing some feeding rates for lump fish. But the importance of that is that, you know, as, as, uh, Bobby's working on this idea of these ecto parasites really compromising the health of of salmon. That's just yet another thing we're doing is looking at, you know, bioremediation, using other cleaner fish to then clean those ecto parasites off of the, uh, off the salmon. So, I don't know, just hadn't been mentioned. And you looked at me and asked me to say something. So I just thought, everyone loves lump fish. Uh, right. Raise your hand if you have one fish. Okay. Everyone's hand is up for real this time.

Corinne

In addition to sustainability, education emerged as a recurring theme across our panel discussion. Through proactive engagement with communities working with students we can inform the next generation of aquaculture experts. These educational efforts are pivotal in forging a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of aquaculture's role in Maine and beyond.

Scarlett

I am really excited about the diversity of educational programs that we have and that we partner with organizations like youth organizations like for our Future Farmers of America. I know that was brought this morning. Um, my colleagues, Melissa Olmstead and and Carlos Gokey, Melissa's back there. Um, they actually had, uh, youth raise amberjack, and then they brought them to the fair. Right. And if you think about organizations like for H and Future Farmers of America, their whole reason for being is to teach adults new technologies through their children, right? So we can talk to adults all we want. But sometimes it's very difficult to get people to change their perspective perspectives, to change their minds and attitudes about certain things. So again, I'm very much like centered in the importance of teaching youth and engaging youth. I find it very valuable to work with kids. They're very honest. And they will tell you, you know what they want, what they want to learn. And I see so much engagement and enthusiasm with kids around fish, even some of the work that we do with our Wabanaki Nations. I think one singular thing that every single tribal nation in our state has been interested in is youth development. And part of that is that mindset of thinking about seven generations ahead of time. I think the other thing that we're doing that is very unique is really a skill sets development mindset. I think often academic institutions think about skill sets. Development is being at a vocational school or community colleges, and that we're intellectuals for whatever that means, right? While I know people with PhDs that can't tie their shoes. So, you know, like, I don't think that getting a PhD means inherently you are a better person or a more knowledgeable person. And so I think for universities to thrive, we have to show people, this is why you want to come here. And these are the careers that you can get. And I'm not just going to teach you the theory about fish nutrition, but we're developing courses and opportunities for people to get their hands on pumps, get their hands in water for them to understand what the job is day to day. And so I think our university is really attacking sort of education issues from a multi-pronged approach. Right. So now we're able to capture any audience like you bring me somebody today that you want them to get into the industry. I will tell you one of our programs that would help them in that career path, or a colleagues program that will get them into that career path.

Nathan

Yeah, I think at ARI, I sort of what I do and what my advisor do kind of plug directly into that. We're hoping to bring the social science toolkit to this to inform strategies for education using empirical, you know, using surveys to see, you know, what are these misconceptions, what levers can we pull to better educate people about these? Is there a trust issue? How can we understand that? Where is that. And so we can inform that directly. And that's what we're hoping to do. In fact, we I was just up at CCR the other week talking to Scarlet about that. Um, and that's just a really important thing for us to. Inform practical strategies.

Scarlett

And I think again, that's this great interdisciplinary thing, right. Like I don't know his science, but he can tell me these are the misconceptions and this is how we can address them. While we can also continue collecting data for them to continue understanding how the misconceptions evolve over time.

Debbie

I think Ari also works really hard at surveying our stakeholders and surveying the industry to set research priorities. And so when the industry tells us we want A, B and C done first, we then go and find we always have to find the funding to do the research, and that's what we target. In fact, one of our newest initiatives is building a sustainable aquaculture Workforce innovation center on campus that will specialize in recirculating aquaculture systems and actually have workforce development for undergraduates, graduate students, industry innovation and lifelong learners.

Sarah

So this is going to go a little bit off to the side. But one of the things that I'm doing in my PhD is collaborating with biomedical engineers. And with that, we have engineering students who had no idea that aquaculture was an industry or that aquaculture faced so many engineering challenges. And so bringing in this whole group of people who have a very different background and different mindset, who are excited about aquaculture and, you know, innovative strategies to facing. And I'm not just talking about systems, challenges and pumps and tanks. I'm talking about biomedical challenges. And you look at how far ahead human and and even terrestrial mammal biomedical sciences, bringing that to aquaculture has been a great education and and interdisciplinary.

Matt

I just wanted to give a nod to like that into the table like Scarlet Nathan. Like you know, we address a lot of research that challenges our technical challenges that, you know, result in fish health challenges or high mortalities, that sort of thing. But really, you know, when you look at the US aquaculture scene, one of the biggest barriers to expansion of aquaculture in the United States is going to be social license. And. And having people trust that our culture is and understand the value of aquaculture and really that that really starts with educating kids. Because adults, we've all made up our minds. We don't change our minds about anything. So we're a lost cause. But kids, kids understand this stuff and they get it much quicker. And they're going to very quickly step into that next generational role. And and also understanding what these barriers are and understanding things social, you know, limits to social license.

Corinne

As we've heard from our panelists, there's an array of really great projects and initiatives underway at ARI. From interdisciplinary collaborations that bridge engineering and aquaculture to programs designed to address the educational needs of diverse communities so I asked our panel so share what they’re most excited about.

Scarlett

okay. I'll say for me, like, I obviously was a fish nerd from when I was a kid. And like, I am just so excited and proud of the programming that we do that gives mentorship that I wish I had when I was a kid. Like, I might not have had that failed experience of going to nursing school and then being like, Holy shit, what am I going to do with my life? Like, what's happening? And then, you know, like I found a mentor that studied fish behavior and I was like, you can get paid to just watch fish all day. Like, that's a that's a job.Um, and I want to give other people that experience of having this like, aha moment of like, I can get paid and have a career in something that I just genuinely enjoy. And so I really like, again, working with all kinds of people that are as excited as I am just about fish, and then we can figure it out from there.

Nathan

Um, one, I think there's just a new cohort of people coming to research social license in aquaculture. It's sort of an expanding segment of the research community. So that's great. Just more people to to work with. And two, I'm going to be the guy that mentions I qualitative work is really time consuming and having more tools to look at, you know, transcripts from public meetings or interviews that can save us a lot of time. And I'm really excited to see what we can do there. I don't know if I'll ever get to do that, like before I finish my PhD, but that could be a really big deal for examining and sort of understanding what the public is thinking about aquaculture.

Scarlett

You get to say to your students, when I was in grad school, I had to do that by hand, exactly on a chalkboard.

Debbie

Yeah. I think what excites me the most is that I get to work with new and emerging scientists. I get to. With young graduate students and PhD students and undergrads that are really excited and work. And now they're like working really hard. And I'm like, wow, I don't want to work that hard anymore.

Bobby

I guess for me, that's a tough question. I'm usually my brain's in the weeds when it comes to biology and stuff. But the new building we're building, the SoC, so having a whole lot of more capabilities for experimental design and flow through systems and really digging into aspects of verus that that are coming up. And what's really exciting is that Maine is like perched on the kind of forefront of not just wrasse, but kind of all aquaculture and all the satellite industries are all kind of waiting for, for things to get going. And so it really has this kind of feel, uh, where an industry is just starting. And to be at the forefront of that is really exciting.

Matt

I'm just excited to be here. Honestly, our cultural research center is really a great place to work. Lots of great people here. I came out, I joined about two and a half years ago, and I just have like a playground to pursue all of my dream projects now. And, they're going pretty okay sometimes. So, you know, that's

Bobby

probably it stinking up the second floor. But yeah

Matt

it's stinky work

Scarlett

territory.

Bobby

I'm on the third floor. That's all right.

Sarah

Um, being at the end here, I think I would just add, um, bringing in new disciplines to the aquaculture field and, um, working with, you know, new people who are who had no idea that aquaculture even existed. And also, you know, the work I'm doing with biopolymer materials and how we can replace plastics or reduce microplastics, or look at new adjuvants for fish that can reduce adverse effects. And, and just, you know, seeing the growth in the movement forward, um, because we we really are moving the needle.

Corinne

In closing, our panelists shared some of their favorite projects, exemplifying the impactful research taking place at ARI.

Sarah

I enjoy almost all of the projects that we work on. Most all of them I find really interesting and exciting and fascinating, but I have to say, one of my favorites is not necessarily a project. It's seeing, you know, the students come in who are majoring in neurobiology and have no direction as to where they want to go and being introduced to. Microbiology and histology and how that relates to aquaculture and being excited about, you know, oh, I didn't even know this existed. And this is fascinating. And I want to take this in this direction. That to me is is my favorite part, I think.

Matt

Uh, well, I guess I'm really excited about some, um, some recent progress we've made with some micro capsules, uh, applying shells, using pretty unique technology to them. And I don't know if, you know, it's so early in the work that we don't know if this is going to be like the thing, but but I'm excited about it right now. And I was told by a wise old guy, Fred Conte, before he passed, it was an alcohol free guy. Said, be excited about the good things while you while you can because they're, you know, you'll go through ups and downs and so take that moment and just appreciate this early success.

Bobby

For me, uh, I don't know how to answer that, but I mean, I guess you could categorize it between a project that before, during and after, I mean, that I could answer that in three different ways, almost. Um, currently, I think, uh, the project we're working on right now regarding getting this whole plethora of data on these cohorts is pretty exciting. But that may just be because I haven't really dug into the data and seen what it says. And so the the possibilities are endless, right? Um, but yeah, just having the opportunity to kind of, uh, forge your own questions and, and come up following the data, uh, has been super helpful and super exciting and. Yeah, I've, I've enjoyed every minute. Most every minute.

Debbie

Yeah, I was going to say, what's my favorite project is the one that ends successfully. But, um, it's that we now have state of the art containment facilities that we can work very effectively and efficiently with exotic pathogens and exotic species. You know, when it's booked out for the next two years and we need more space. That in itself, that struggle is the definition of success.

Scarlett

I remember when I used to have to worry about my job when I was a technician in Debbie's lab, Sarah Too. I think we went from like, we're still working next week, right? To like, no more work. Debbie.

Nathan

So I've mentioned some qualitative work, some quantitative work, but I also do a little bit of spatial work, and I try to rope in what we learn from these qualitative and quantitative projects about public perception of race into site selection. So I have to use spatial tools to do that. And there's some things that we found out that are really interesting. Obviously race development occurs in a place in a community. And so communities have identities and it has to fit. So that's kind of what I'm looking for, places where it fits. And I'm intrigued by this idea of restorative wrasse. We talk about restoration aquaculture. But wrasse can be restorative to the built environment is part of our ecology as well. So there are places like paper mills in Maine that's been the subject of, uh, Rasp proposals. And California. I think somebody even proposed doing wrasse in like a mine in West Virginia at some point. Yeah. So I don't know what's going on with that, but, um,

Matt

I'm getting the sense you're like a technology is is part of, uh, like nature.

Nathan

Absolutely. Absolutely everything. I mean, a paper mill has a huge ecological footprint. So to the extent that Rascon rehabilitate a place like that and restore it, and then also because of that, fit better into a community, that's something we should be looking for. And so I'm excited about doing that analysis. It's really hard to do spatial analysis with like social data, because it's just not spatially explicit in the way that like a tree is because you take your ideas to your work, you take it to, you know, your job. But I'm trying to untangle that and work with that a little bit.

Matt

Plus, RAS is how we're going to like, make fish on spaceships when we're traveling through the galaxy. So

Scarlett

I hope there's a percentage of our population that goes to space. I'm happy to talk about which percentage.Uh, I think for me, uh, you know, one of the things I'm really excited about is working with this program called mano a mano, and it's Spanish for hand in hand. Um, and that program really addresses needs of immigrant communities in Maine. Um, and we just started working with kids in that community and teaching them about aquaponic systems, land based systems, how to care for fish. Um, and I think for me and my own sort of decolonization process, I've thought a lot about how extractive my science has been and how I've gone to Mexico in these communities and taken animals from them, but haven't given back to those communities where I've worked before. And so now I'm getting to work, um, with kids that I'm hoping I get to teach them something. But I'm also hoping they will teach me Spanish so that, you know, we can start translating some of the resources that we have for youth and that, um, you know, colleagues and friends that I have that work in Mexico, they can start bringing some of the work that we're doing. And even nationally in the US, like Spanish as a language is moving up. Right. And so how do we make our educational experiences again, um, accessible to those that speak different languages?

Corinne

That wraps up our panel, we had a ton of fun in San Antonio and thanks to all of our panelists for showcasing what great work ARI does!