Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

An Upper Trophic Level opus 281

20 January 2024 1630 Hours

Farming, Biology, Diet, Environment, Food, Ichthyology, Memories, Zoology

For two decades I raised Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). From north to south on my 37 acre farm, a minor canyon had been created, harvesting gravel from an extinct streambed in 1941, to construct a base for the 7000 foot runway which was used for the training of WWII bomber pilots, just across the road. I designed and directed the complex array of pending fish ponds, accrued the nets (seins), holding pens--ok, and, of course, dug a 200 foot deep well! The Channels (fish) were seeded, each pond receiving a proportionate share. A routine of daily feeding then proceeded, walking and throwing feed along the edges. After more than a year, one pound fish were netted as a trial. Then it was off to the Farmers Markets -- I was the first to do so in my area -- The managers weren't quite ready for this newest of products! All went well, with 15 restaurants added to the recipients.

I was comfortable with catfish as a product, raised in a hot summer environment. (Now after 40 years, summers are ever hotter--I remember at least three winters when all ponds would freeze over and the kids even skated -- not any longer.). While selling fish, customers had many questions, as is the wont in a direct Farmers Market. One, of course, was, 'Don't these fish feed on the bottom?' I quickly solved that one for a good reply, as well as for a better product: I used floating fish food, which created a wonderful feeding frenzy as well, which the many visiting school children immensely enjoyed! The nutrition of catfish flesh is quite complete and very healthy. But the 'haupt' subject which greatly worries me is the fact that we are fishing out our wild stocks, and, of course, most people wish to consume salmon and tuna and trout, all of which are on the top of the food chain--the highest trophic (feeding) level.

It worries me to see customers in a grocery store, ogling over salmon, when there are so many other, environmentally better fish species to be consumed. Captive salmon create their own problems such as antibiotics loose in the ocean near the floating pens, let alone the dissolving artificial food and fish waste. But most, the escape of domesticated varieties of salmon into the wild populations. Pond raised fish are isolated and do not create such problems. In general then, we must all be aware of the trophic levels from which WE feed as well!