Finding a Passion For Fish With a Can of Spam

Curiosity struck when Jack Irwin entered the ocean in Panama City, Florida, holding a can of spam and wearing goggles. As a child, he dove into the crystal-clear water as fish swarmed him and his Spam underwater.

Jack Irwin is a senior at Auburn University majoring in Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences on the fisheries management track. Interest sparked in this field when he watched the fish swarm in the ocean as a young boy. Years later, he now studies at Auburn University’s E.W. Shell Fisheries Center.

After this lifechanging experience in the ocean, he wanted to be a marine biologist. He quickly realized this degree required too much science, so he switched gears to the management side.

“When I got a little older, I realized marine biologists have to take a million sciences. I am more interested in fresh water anyway,” Irwin said.

In the fisheries management track, Irwin studies endangered species in rivers, lakes and streams.

Once students reach higher classes in the major, they get to go to the E.W. Shell Fisheries Center for labs. Irwin said he goes to class in Swingle Hall, and then they all pack up and drive out to the E.W. Shell Fisheries Center to apply what they learned that day.

Within the major, he said it is a tight knit community because there are only 50 undergraduate students. On top of this, the program is made up of several graduate students.

Out of all the classes he has taken, Ichthyology has been his favorite. They learn about species of fish around the world through videos, lectures and labs.

“It is so fast paced, and I never feel like I am looking at the clock to see when the class is going to be over,” Irwin said.

He was introduced to the fisheries center in 2019 while he was still a student at Southern Union and continued working when he transferred to Auburn University in 2020. As a farm hand for the facility, he said he gets more hands-on experience than the average student.

“It’s hard to get a job in this field while in college, so I feel pretty lucky that I’ve had hands-on experience every year that I’ve been here,” Irwin said.

At work, he studies muscle toxicology and the parts that influence crustaceans, which are aquatic animals like shrimp and crayfish. On occasion, he gets to take tilapia from the fish greenhouse at the E.W. Shell Fisheries Center to an Asian Market.

“I don’t do any research myself. I mainly just aid the grad students with little things like taking care of the tank and checking the water levels,” Irwin said.

While the Spam was a majoring turning point for his passion of fisheries, Irwin’s experience with aquaculture in high school settled his decision. At Auburn High School, students had the opportunity to take aquaculture classes.

“It’s a cool program, and I think that is another thing that brought me into fisheries rather than biology,” Irwin said.

Former Auburn High School Agriculture teacher, Rebecca Balkcom, implemented aquaponics into the curriculum. There were already tanks in the classroom, but students were curious about growing plants too.

Balkcom said her urban students underestimated how high-tech agriculture is, and she enjoyed breaking those stereotypes as their teacher.

“It brought everything the kids learned in biology to agriculture,” Balkcom said.

With 62 glass tanks in the classroom, every student researched and designed their own aquarium. Classes ran by semesters, so students could usually get two or three crops in.

“The first year we had our own tanks where we could pick whatever fish we wanted and follow certain water quality to keep it clean. We had saltwater tanks, gar, pacu, and many others. We made sure their habits were clean and that they were fed,” said Irwin.

The high school worked directly with Auburn University’s College of Agriculture. Balkcom said they couldn’t have done it without their help and expertise.

Now, the college has three former Auburn High School students in the fisheries program who never thought they would be, all because of their high school experience. Balkcom said students were amazed at the diversity within agriculture.

“For the first time in my classroom my students were thinking about agriculture and all the opportunities that come along with it. Aquaponics is not the first thing people think about because everyone thinks of tractors and plows first,” Balkcom said.

The joy the students get from their aquariums and value of how much they look forward to it was shocking to Balkcom.

“I would feed my pacu the kale grown in the aquaponics system. I grew my fish to four pounds, which is huge,” Irwin said.

At the end of the semester, the kids take a week to prepare to say goodbye to their fish. They undecorate their tank, leave notes for the fish’s next owner, and some even come back the next semester to check on it.

For Irwin, his next steps after graduation are work in outreach within conservation. He worked with kids as an environmental education instructor for a summer. This made him realize he can use what he has learned in his major to teach others who are younger. Irwin has even considered teaching high school students aquaponics, just as he was taught before.

When people are young, Irwin said concepts are so formative. A kid might see something about a snake one time at that age and be interested in snakes the rest of their life.

Just as Irwin found his passion as a kid with Spam, goggles and an ocean, he said he hopes to teach children when they are young so they can figure out their own interests.