Traditional Fish Farming

Only upon migrating to Canada did I become more aware of the meaning of organic farming. It was a mild surprise for me to experience customers in fish stores vocally rejecting buying any farmed fish. Only wild caught fish is acceptable. But if the fish is organically farmed, some of the detractors would buy the fish.

In the recently concluded 2007 Boston Seafood Show, several exhibitors were showing off their organically farmed products: Salmon, Tilapia, Prawns, Clams, Mussels, Lobsters, Char and so on. My understanding of organic farming is framed according to the following: use of natural food, no genetic modification of specie or food element, no medication of fish during culture period, no chemical additives during processing.

I have been a finfish farmer for 16 years in my country of birth. And I have seen good and deplorable fish culture practices. I used floating net cages located in high water flow estuaries to raise: groupers, red and gold snappers, sea bass (baramundi), and siganids. We sourced our frys from the wild (except the sea bass which came from SEAFDEC) and fed them with natural food, that is, fishery byproducts from various forms of commercial fishing. No medication during culture and we delivered (without the use of 'calmer' medications) market size fishes in live forms to seafood restaurants. That makes me conclude that my traditionally farmed fishes would earn the tag here in North America as "ORGANIC".

Here's a video clip of the seabass, better known in Australia as "baramundi" (Lates calcalifer).

I also had a chance to do earthen pond culture of milkfish. Fish frys were also sourced from the wild. For pond preparation, we would drain the water and sunbake the surface for 2 weeks to kill food competitors (shellfish mostly) and then broadcast byproduct tobacco leaf trims before letting back the water in. The mix would kill any eggs of competitors which may hatch. Then for another three weeks, we would keep the pond water at only 2-inch high to allow for the algae to grow profusely. When the pond is already algae heavy, then we seed it with 4-5 inch milkfish fingerlings at a density of about 4 square meters floor area per fish. Fish are harvested in the next 45-60 days and they just grow from the natural food in the pond.

Would that make my traditionally farmed milkfish organic? Would this fish be acceptable to those who reject any form of farmed fish and yet eat farmed produce and farmed land animals?

Comments

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[samuel odunaiya]

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