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Hybrids are all the rage these days— from fuel-efficient cars to golf clubs.

Catfish might not seem like good “mixture” candidates, but a former aerospace engineer and an Auburn University professor have been hard at work for months to make their project a success.

What they’re doing is “squeezing” new life out of different male and female catfish species to come up with commercially viable offspring. They believe it will be a hit in the marketplace as well as the supermarket.

Sam Lawrence, a Mississippi native who spent

(From left) Keith Robinson, Zack Smith and Hakeem Sykes search for catfish at Eagle Aquaculture’s site south of Montgomery, and find what they’re looking for— a 35 male blue catfish.

Rex Dunham holds a cake plate which will be used for catfish sperm and eggs as part of a unique hybrid operation.

Their product—a cross between a male blue catfish and a female channel catfish—has a major advantage. Developers believe they will grow quicker, be more resistant to disease and, as a result, bring in more money for the company that is creating them.

They’re developing their hybrid catfish at a south Montgomery County farm just off U.S. 231. The owners they lease from once tried unsuccessfully to raise hogs for commercial consumption.

The catfish industry’s latest wrinkle—combining the best of the two most popular species—is still relatively new, but Lawrence and Dunham feel it is only a matter of time before their AU catfish will become a national hit.

This summer, Eagle will begin shipping tiny fry to a couple of west Alabama catfish farmers— Bill Kyser in Greensboro and Rafe Taylor in Eutaw — who will

“The consumer will not see any difference in the product they receive at restaurants or grocery stores,” said Lawrence.

Alabama catfish production is a $500 million annual industry and the state trails only Mississippi in the amount produced each year.

Eagle Aquaculture is a subsidiary of Aetos Technologies which was founded two years ago to link Auburn’s research arm with America’s commercial market. An attachment for microscopes to get even closer to that which is invisible to the naked eye is one of the products being developed by Aetos.

Lawrence, who is Aetos’ chief operating officer as well as CEO for Eagle Aquaculture, sees hybrid catfish as a growing commodity far removed from the novelty food it once was in restaurant and supermarkets.

“There has been a steady upward trend in

Sam Lawrence, chief executive officer of Eagle Aquaculture Inc., inspects an area where his company’s male blue catfish will be produced.

Zack Smith holds a 35-pound male blue catfish which when bred with a female channel catfish produces a hybrid, which grows faster and is more resistant to disease.

Dunham, who grew up in Illinois and moved to Alabama to obtain his master’s and doctorate degrees at Auburn, has spent much of his life studying and working with catfish.

Ask him a question about them and he’s quick to respond. He’s happy to share his knowledge about a fish that has moved from creeks and rivers to some of America’s fanciest restaurants.

“There are seven major catfish species in North America,” he said, as he watched crews work at the Montgomery County farm recently. “Channel and blue catfish are closely related and that’s why we’re focusing on those two species. Hybrid catfish production is being done elsewhere in the country, but only on a small scale.”

Dunham said his company is the only one of its kind in the U.S. to focus solely on hybrid catfish. He is as confident as Lawrence that it will succeed.

The manual hatching process is much different and more difficult than the standard process of the traditional mating process, said Lawrence.

What Eagle Aquaculture does is squeeze, or “harvest,” as Lawrence and Dunham like to say, the sperm from male blue catfish and eggs from female channel catfish for the “mating” procedure.

A pan is used to bring the eggs and sperm together. If everything goes according to plan, the birth process begins. With thousands of possible fingerlings in each pan, it could easily be a profitable venture. Lawrence and Dunham believe that’s just what will happen.

“Production of channel catfish can take up to 2 ½ years,” said Dunham, 49. “We believe we can do it in 18 months.”

New techniques and creations are not always

Sam and Terri Lawrence have been adjusting nicely to their Alabama surroundings after living in Seattle, Wash. for several years. They’ve moved from aeospace to catfish and love every minute.

accepted by the public or the companies that serve them. Lawrence is enough of a realist to know that it may take awhile for the hybrid catfish to take off.

“We have to demonstrate that we can execute our plan,” he said. “If we can raise fingerlings the way we believe we can and the farmers trust us, they’ll eventually begin to convert to the same process. I believe hybrid catfish can grow to a significant portion of the domestic catfish industry.”

Dunham, who has worked with catfish much longer than Lawrence, doesn’t have any doubts.

“Given enough time, hybrid catfish will replace channel catfish production,” he said. “A lot of it depends on the workforce because, by the end of the day, you’re pretty tired.”

Lawrence agrees that raising hybrid catfish is labor intensive, but he’s just as convinced that what they’re doing will help revolutionize the industry.

”A lot of nuances are involved,” he said. “No patent is involved in our process, but there are a lot of secrets. We don’t want to go into too much detail.”

When Lawrence was convinced to leave his aerospace job to come to Alabama to learn about raising hybrid catfish, he knew he had a lot to learn and that’s why he leaned on Dunham for help.

It was all new to him, but the Auburn professor was patient, explaining the ins and outs of catfish farming. They worked closely for three months before Lawrence felt confident enough to join his new friend as an equal partner.

If there was one lesson that sank in faster than the others, it was Dunham’s belief that catfish production must have a sufficient quantity-quality ratio if it was to succeed.

“There is a serious side to this business,” Dunham said. “If you aren’t able to produce sufficient amounts of fry to stock ponds, it doesn’t matter if it’s the fastest growing fish in the world,” Dunham said.

Catfish farming has come into its own in Alabama in the past three decades. The state currently has about 26,000 water acres of fish farms and more than 200 commercial farmers who produce 25 different aquatic species.

Production of catfish is, by far, the most popular species. Most catfish farmers and processors live and operate in west Alabama, especially in Dallas, Hale, Greene and Perry counties. In the past two decades, catfish farming has jumped an amazing 1,600 percent.

Lawrence and Dunham believe that if their hybrid species can catch on in Alabama, it won’t be long before it spreads across the South and the rest of the country.

“Catfish production is already a very strong economic market,” Lawrence said. “We don’t see why hybrid catfish can’t be just as strong.”

Only time will tell, as they say, but Lawrence and Dunham aren’t worried about that aspect of their business.

They’re devoting almost every waking hour to hybrid catfish. They have no doubt it’s time well spent.

Alvin Benn is a freelance writer from Selma.