Fishing News
Catfish Farming Is $2.3 Million Industry Locally
By Larry Chamblin
The surface of Chester Jantz's farm pond in northwest Escambia County bubbles during a feeding frenzy. A glimpse of whiskers above the water is evidence it's dinner time at the catfish pond.
The Jantz farm is one of 37 farms comprising the county's $2.3 million catfish industry. Escambia County is the leading producer of catfish in Florida. Santa Rosa County has one catfish farm.
Max Griggs of the Escambia County Extension Service traces the beginning of the local catfish industry to a meeting of 23 farmers and Extension Service specialists in a barn on Garry Boeckner's farm in Walnut Hill in the mid-1990s.
The local catfish industry has experienced healthy growth in the past eight years, developing all the elements of a complete industry, minus processing. Today, farms with close to a thousand acres of ponds supply large processing plants in Alabama, Mississippi and other states with about 4.8 million pounds of catfish annually.
The fish ultimately find their way to restaurants and dinner tables throughout the nation.
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