Alabama’s catfish farmers are grappling with a serious problem: Plus-sized catfish that are growing too large, too quickly, according to a Sunday report.

This problem impacts not only the size of the harvest but the financial viability of the farms, according to Alabama News Center. Fortunately, help appears to be on the way.

“These fish weigh around 20 pounds. You’ve got them consuming the smaller fish and eating your feed, and they’re worth nothing when you send them to the processing plant. This is a major issue; our farms are losing a lot of money,” said Larry Lawson, Director of the Research and Extension Center in Auburn’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture & Aquatic Sciences. (RELATED: Legend: 15-Year-Old Ohio Girl Catches 101-Pound Catfish)

Auburn University is spearheading an effort to find solutions for the catfish problem. The school is leveraging its resources, with facilities on both the eastern and western sides of the state, to assist catfish farmers. The E.W. Shell Fisheries Center, located north of Auburn’s campus, provides technical expertise to small, family-owned farms, according to the outlet.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Fish Farming Center (AFFC) in Greensboro focuses on larger, commercial operations. Both centers are working together to tackle the challenge of oversized catfish, which are not only expensive to feed but also reduce the growth of smaller, market-sized fish.

Researchers at Auburn are also looking into the rapid growth of hybrid catfish, a prevalent species in the industry. These hybrids can reach sizes over 25 pounds in just three years, creating even more problems for farmers as these large fish frequently evade efforts to harvest them, according to Extension Professor Luke Roy, the outlet noted

E.W. Fisheries Center services “fee fishing” family-owned operations where local residents can fish in small ponds. Fishers pay by the pound for their catches.

“There’s a lot of water in Alabama, but there’s relatively little fishing access for people that don’t have boats,” Lawson said. “A lot of these farmers farm other things like cattle and row crops, but they have these ponds on their property that aren’t really utilized, so they open them up for fishing.”