By Chris Aldridge
Kentucky Ag News

MIDWAY, Ky. -- For four decades Steve Mims has raised paddlefish.

The former Kentucky State University (KSU) professor researched paddlefish for 30 years before retiring 10 years ago. His studies found fish raised in former wastewater treatment plants were safe for human consumption. So, since 2015, Mims has leased the former Midway plant to supply his business, ASAP (Advancing Sustainable Aquaculture Performance) for Fish.

“In the last couple of years, I've drawn a lot of people from the United States interested in the paddlefish,” Mims said. “My end goal would really just be able to concentrate on paddlefish and really be the main supplier in the United States for that.”

Last fall, Mims sold his entire supply of 7,000 paddlefish, which have long been an alternative to sturgeon as a source of high-valued meat and caviar.

“My research emphasis (at KSU) was in reproduction of developing an all-female population so that we would produce more caviar,” Mims said. “It's a meatier type of fish that’s not flaky and has very little fish taste, which most Americans like. You know, they like eating fish, but they don't want something too strong.

“My goal when I started here was really just to do paddlefish. When I realized I couldn't make enough (money) just doing paddlefish starting off, that's when I started adding bass and bluegill and other fish that I could stock (farm ponds), and that's really the bread and butter of my company.”

Mims typically sells 6,000-7,000 stocker bass per year, along with several thousand paddlefish, Koi carp, and bluegill.

“I would say about 20 percent of my business is for stocking farm ponds around the area,” Mims said. “I'm the only centrally located fish hatchery here in this part of the state, so it makes it nice for people that are in Eastern Kentucky or (central) Kentucky to be able to obtain fish for their ponds.”

Mims has also sold paddlefish and Koi to aquarium owners in New York City and Chicago.

Mims pays the city of Midway $250-$300 a month to lease the facility. Its largest round tank holds 160,000 gallons of water.

“I stock it with the fry (baby fish) in May, and then by June, I have 4- or 5-inch paddlefish,” Mims said, noting they grow about 5 pounds per year and typically reach 160 pounds.

“The largemouth bass, I buy those out of Mississippi at 2 inches. I raise them up to 6 to 8 inches, then sell them to the farm ponds.”

The Lancaster, Pa., native’s fascination with fish began when he was 4 years old raising guppies in a fishbowl. He expanded to tropical fish, such as mollies and angelfish.

Mims graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with an undergraduate degree in fisheries management, then earned master’s and doctorate degrees from Auburn University, which at that time had the nation’s largest aquaculture graduate school.

In 1984, Mims became a professor at Kentucky State University, which was starting its Aquaculture Research Center, the only such facility in the state. In 2015, Mims co-authored a book, “Paddlefish Aquaculture,” with the late Bill Shelton, a professor at the University of Oklahoma and Auburn.

“About 10 years before I retired, we (at KSU) started identifying decommissioned sewer plants throughout the state, one being in Winchester and one being in London,” Mims said. “They were going to destroy the tanks and bury them.done

“In Winchester, they estimated it was going to cost about a million dollars to do that with the number of tanks they had there, plus they had three large ponds. After several meetings and talking with their (city) council people, they decided to allow us to start doing research there.

“In London, they had a similar facility, and they hadn't been using it for years,” he added. “We did research there too.”

Midway’s former wastewater treatment plant, which can be seen from Interstate 64 at the Midway exit on KY 421, fell into disrepair after it was replaced in 2000 by a larger facility directly across the road.

“It was really grown over; I couldn't really even see the tanks,” Mims said, describing the condition of the former plant, which was originally built 89 years ago. “I started cleaning up the place.”

ASAP Fish was recently approved for up to $10,000 in state funds as part of an On-Farm Water Small Scale Grant. The grants are issued by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Office of Agricultural Policy to private farms to implement best management practices for water. Mims used the grant to purchase and install a pump and piping, and create a cistern to capture and distribute water from a spring-fed creek (Lee Branch, a tributary of Elkhorn Creek) that flows next to the facility.

“I added water lines, added drain lines, renovated some of the tanks so they'd be more useful for raising fish in, and then had a good source of water from the creek, which I'm permitted to use,” Mims said. “Those are the main things that I did to repurpose it for aquaculture.”