DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240361

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   82 lines

TESTING THE WATERS BEACH MAN'S FARM POND IS BEGINNING TO NET PROFITS

Sheriff Frank Drew has found a way to fish for fun and profit.

Two years ago, he stocked his farm pond off North Landing Road with young, minnow-sized hybrid striped bass. As the babies began to grow to edible size, Drew would come home from his job at the nearby city jail, toss in a line and catch one or two for dinner.

And just last weekend, he netted himself a real mess of fish - about 1,500 pounds - which he sold to George's Seafood in Norfolk, a fresh fish wholesaler.

Drew's fish are now showing up on restaurant tables as far north as Boston, and his pond is empty. In June, he will re-stock the pond with fingerlings from a hatchery in North Carolina and start again.

He stands to make between $2 and $2.50 a pound for his catch, meaning he will break even on pond construction and stocking, Drew said. In the future, he hopes to make between $5,000 and $10,000 every other year on the enterprise, enough to afford him a lot of fun.

``I enjoy the whole ideal of raising the fish,'' Drew said, ``and going out to catch the fish.''

Drew is one of just a few folks in southeastern Virginia farm country who are testing the aquaculture waters, and there's plenty more opportunity for Hampton Roads farmers.

Louis Cullipher, director of the Virginia Beach Department of Agriculture, sees fish farming as another alternative crop for farmers to consider. ``There's a niche out there to be filled,'' he said. ``You have to weigh it against other high value crops such as sweet corn and tomatoes.''

The potential is considerable. In North Carolina, where fish farming already has caught on, farm-raised trout fetched $6.5 million in 1995, the most recent figures available, according to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. That may seem like a lot of money, but No. 1 Idaho sold $33.2 million worth of trout. North Carolina also sold nearly $2 million in catfish; No. 1 Mississippi sold nearly $247 million.

Hampton Roads is ideal for fish farm development, said Brian Nerrie, an aquaculture extension specialist at Virginia State University in Petersburg. The climate, warmed by the ocean, gives the fish more growing days than elsewhere in the state. The land is relatively flat, good for building the shallow ponds needed for fish culture, and the area is close to markets.

Barry Knight, a Virginia Beach hog farmer who was on hand to help with Drew's harvest, is giving it a try. He's expecting to net the fish in one of his ponds in two to three weeks. And Weatherly Farms in Chesapeake is planning to harvest catfish in a few months.

Striped bass - also known as rockfish - are not available year-round, Nerrie said. Hybrid striped bass, a cross between a female saltwater striped bass and a Kentucky white bass, thrive in fresh water.

Drew swears he can't taste the difference between his fish and the local saltwater rockfish. Consumers and restaurant chefs also like the mild tasting, farm-raised fish, Nerrie said.

``They realize it's fresh, not frozen on a boat,'' he added. ``The fish are of uniform size. They are grain fed, a mild fish, and the chef can flavor them to his own desires.''

Drew's investment consisted of digging the one-third-acre pond and buying 2,000 minnow-sized fish for about 25 cents apiece. His first attempt in 1993 ended with an algae bloom, which depleted the oxygen in the water and killed the fish.

This time, he figures he lost about one-third of his fish to hungry osprey, blue heron and river otter. But the remaining striped bass grew big and plump on commercial fish chow. When they reached the two-pound range, they were ready for harvest.

Last Saturday, after lowering the water level in the 15-foot-deep pond to about 5 feet, Drew and some relatives and friends harvested the fish in a long net. Stretched across the pond, it was hauled through the water by trucks on both sides of the water.

When the trucks pulled the net up on shore, it was bulging with a writhing mass of muddy fish. It took four hauls to complete the harvest.

The plump striped bass, their silvery backs gleaming in the sun, lay on the grass around Drew's pond as he and his friends rinsed and packed them in baskets.

``Frank's fish are beautiful,'' Knight said. ``They're beautiful.'' ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY MARY REID BARROW/The Virginian-Pilot

Frank Drew stands to make between $2 and $2.50 a pound for the

striped bass harvested from his pond in Virginia Beach. In the

future, he hopes to make between $5,000 and $10,000 every other year

on the enterprise.

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