A Novel Fish Farm

Fish farms are not always those circular or rectangular floating rafts which we see out in the bays and river mouths of Ireland…

Fish farms are not always those circular or rectangular floating rafts which we see out in the bays and river mouths of Ireland. We also have inland fish-farms. An Irishwoman who spent a few days on the west coast of France recently writes that she wandered around fish farms on the delta of the Leyre river at Arcachon (south-west of Bordeaux) on the Atlantic coast, farms which had been there since the beginning of this century. "Those I saw melted perfectly into the environment; edged by trees and shrubs - rather murky waters - and visited by herons, egrets and other water birds."

But, she says, they are still in business, though not on the scale of earlier days. It all came about this way. Originally this territory was a salt marsh and at high tide, the fry of various fish would pour in. If they could survive in such water, it seemed to some enterprising people that provision should be made for their retention and their cultivation. All you had to do was so to arrange the territory and its waters so that the fish which came in were kept in by dams or dykes with sluice-gates to control flow of water and movement of fish.

Not all fish could flourish in such conditions, often with great fluctuations of temperature and availability of oxygen. The eel could survive, mullet, too. Also a fish called bar in French and, according to a document issued by the EU, meaning in English bass. Hmm. All this caused alarm among the coastal fishermen who saw their employment endangered. In fact, it is stated, over-fishing was simply the cause of any apparent drop-off.

Meanwhile, the farmed or captive fish became mature, according to the species, in from three to nine years. Some of these ponds or lakes must have been extensive, for they used big nets to take them in. At times eels were harpooned. There seemed to be no question of artificial feeding. Sometimes the vegetation went wild and had to be raked or otherwise cleared out. From the 1950s on, costs went up and in some cases Nature is taking over. But there is still production on a smaller scale, and, of course, this makes it all more attractive for visitors. In fact, the delta of the Laure is now likely to become a tourist draw as it never was before. And fish production goes on. And, as far as can be gathered, no artificial feeding is needed.