Anyone who is curious about fish farming and those dedicated to the industrys success, are invited to the”Aquaculture Forum”Saturday, Jan. 20, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Days Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Flatwoods.

This years event is sponsored by the West Virginia University Extension Service, West Virginia Aquaculture Association and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. The forum will focus on recent developments in the states aquaculture industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to listen to WVU faculty and staff, business and industry leaders and others on current developments and ways to more effectively manage their businesses.

Featured speakers include Bryan Plemmons, managing partner of Casta Line Trout Farms and Arnold Sutterlin, who has more than 30 years of experience of fish farm management experience.

Plemmons business grew from a two-pond operation in 1965 to a live-stocking and wholesale fish business in 1977. The farm specializes in live rainbow, brook and golden trout for stocking purposes. The business also sells live trout to processors who prepare and sell them to the finest restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, including the White House. The farm consistently receives best of show for fish at the Virginia State Fair.

Sutterlin is operating a modern fish hatchery which is investigating the benefits of genetically modified fish for aquaculture. He was named Aquaculturist of the Decade by the Atlantic Aquaculture exposition and Conference in 1999.

For more information, or to register for the conference, contact Becky Casteel, WVU Extension Service Center for Agricultural and Natural Resources Development, at (304) 293-6131, ext. 4231, or by e-mail at rcasteel@wvu.edu .