Fishy business

Wow...uploading pictures here in Bangkok is a breeze! This is great...no more waiting one or two hours to upload one posting's worth...

The one thing I didn't anticipate adding to my CV was fish-net alteration skills! Here I am at Canada House in Mbarara, sewing a rope and floats onto seine netting that will eventually end up with a local fish farmer. It fascinates me how such simple technology can be life-changing for someone who lives off the land...I'm hoping that those farmers who receive the netting are able to increase productivity of their ponds.

A typical fish pond set-up in my village area. The mzee (elderly gentleman) who built these ponds graciously allowed ACTS to facilitate a fish-farming workshop there...We invited over twenty farmers who had either started fish-farming or had demonstrated capability and interest in this area.

A seine net in action. The attendees had a blast watching fish being seined out of the mzee's ponds - most had not seen a seine net before. It's an expensive investment that not all small-scale farmers can afford.

That's John Tibihika (Mbarara district Fisheries Officer) looking on as an attendee holds an emari or catfish from the pond. It was huge and very active...they thrashed around some in the green bucket.

A young tilapia fish. Generally speaking, tilapia are ideal for small-scale fish farming because of the relative ease in raising them. They feed on zooplankton that proliferates on the upper layer of freshwater that is about 3 feet deep and reproduce quickly. The challenge lies in constant maintenance and monitoring of the ponds - oxygen levels, zooplankton/algal growth and water management are important factors in successfully raising tilapia.

Chop chop chop...the fish farming workshop concluded with a meal of stewed tilapia and catfish. Yum...the picture above shows the typical use of a banana leaf as a chopping board.