Extension 4-H offers Aquaponics SPIN Club

August 9, 2018 Cooperative Extension, Marine Sciences, Outreach, Signature and Emerging Areas

This summer, Hancock County 4-H has been collaborating with the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture (CCAR) in Franklin and the University of Maine Center for Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) to offer a 4-H Aquaponics SPIN Club to high school youth in the Franklin area.

The group meets at the CCAR facility weekly to care for two aquaponics systems, through which the youth learn about growing plants with the wastewater from fish.

Highlights so far include feeding halibut and codfish, taking water quality measurements, thinning lettuce seedlings, dissecting squid and cooking with Deb Spurling, an Extension nutrition educator. The program continues through the end of August, and program leaders hope to continue aquaponics programming this year throughout Hancock County.

This program is supported by Maine EPSCoR, SEANET, UMaine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research and UMaine Cooperative Extension.