URI_Research_Magazine_2012-2013_Melissa-McCarthy

Bengtson has also had a longstanding interest in environmental toxicology and the use of silversides, a small fish, in toxicity testing. Aquaculture research takes place in laboratories at the Graduate School of Oceanography on URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus, in laboratories at URI’s East Farm, and also on the Kingston Campus. But in the past year, Bengtson has found himself far away from URI and its aquatic laboratories – half a world away, in fact – yet still, his focus has remained aquaculture research. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development, through the Aquaculture Collaborative Research Program, he has traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia to advise fish farmers there. Bengtson’s research has found that as much as 50 percent of the fish meal can be replaced with soy without negative consequences on the farm-raised fish. Working with scientists in Southeast Asia, he has Collaborations with companies that want to engage biotechnology applications to aquaculture...

convinced an estimated 1,000 farmers to switch to soy-based pellets, thereby saving a food source for the local residents and making the aquaculture industry there more benign. The basic research about the soy pellets took place at URI. “We took what we learned here and applied it abroad,” he said. Another overseas project involves educating regulators in Southeast Asian countries about carrying capacities. These countries have a tremendous need for the sort of computer modeling that enabled him to figure out what Rhode Island’s ecological carrying capacity was for aquaculture, but they lack the raw data needed to plug into the computer model to make it work, Bengtson said. Back at URI, the future of Bengtson’s innovative aquaculture research is likely to focus on the improvement of feeds, the development of non-traditional aquaculture species, husbandry techniques, disease treatments and the development of the capability of offshore aquaculture. Collaborations with companies that want to engage biotechnology applications to aquaculture will continue as will international industry collaborations, Bengtson said. His big idea in Rhode Island aquaculture could help improve economic development for the Ocean State.

URI Research: Impacting Rhode Island Economic Development 17