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RAS Academy is an online primer to recirculating aquaculture

With more and more projects for recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) popping up around the world, there is a fast-growing demand for skilled aquaculturists that can work with this technology.

RAStech Magazine and the Freshwater Institute is launching RAS Academy, a new online introductory course for planning and designing RAS. From unit process design to calculating mass balances, the RAS Academy will take users through the fundamentals of RAS for fish culture. 

The online course is currently in development to be made available on RAStech’s website on Nov. 14. 

“RAS operators are required to wear many hats these days – be part engineer, part biologist, part nutritionist, mechanic and so on,” said Jeremy Thain, associate publisher of RAStech Magazine. “By no means do we see the academy’s courses as a substitute for getting hands-on learning at an in-person RAS educational operation, however we’re hoping that our courses may act as a stepping stone for many.”

The curriculum will be based on the Freshwater Institute’s four-day RAS course which was first developed in 1995 in partnership with Cornell University. The course was held at Cornell until 1999, after which the combined Cornell/Freshwater Institute course continued to be taught independently by both institutions until Cornell University stopped offering the in-person course in 2015. 

“We have been teaching an annual in-person course on RAS for over 20 years, and the online RAS Academy is a great way to extend that,” said Brian Vinci, director of the Freshwater Institute. “The online platform will make the content accessible to more people for learning on their own schedule, and prepare them for the next steps in RAS operations.”

The in-person course is taught annually at various locations across the United States. This year, the RAS course was held in Miami, Fla. on Aug. 16-19. 

“Of course, we couldn’t fit the entire four-day, in-person course into the introductory online courses, so we are planning to develop more courses in 2023 with advanced topics like planning and design of RAS,” added Vinci. “We are also developing courses that cover our most recent research results as a way to quickly extend those new findings to the stakeholders who can put them to use.”