Fish Sex

I held the last of my workshops this week and things went so well. To be honest I am amazed that I did these 5 workshops on the days I scheduled. There were no mechanical breakdowns, nor fuel shortages (when I heard that a major transport route between Malawi and Tanzania closed for a few days last week I made a run to the filling station to fill the jerry cans with diesel just in case). There was only one funeral (sadly the accountant at work lost both his wife and baby in childbirth) but Spriano said that he wanted to do the workshops still (perhaps he was tired of going to funerals too). Also, I made of point of designing my workshops so that we did not need electricity. From my experience these are the 4 major factors that delay work here (mechanical, fuel, electricity, funerals), so I tried to mitigate them from the start.

I am happy to report that this week there were no bees. Both the extension officers in Ntcheu district (Steve and Joseph) did a great job organizing on their end - although Joseph was an hour late because his bicycle broke.

I ran these pretty much the same as I did last weeks – some hands on practical work combined with translation and lots of universally understood sketches. I did not realize how bad my artistic skills were until I tried to draw a goat with a magic marker. Its OK, at least I got them laughing.

For me the funniest part of the workshops was trying to explain fish sex. The beneficiaries only understand reproduction from a mammalian POV. They get humans, cows, goats but not fish. External fertilization just doesn’t make sense to them. All creatures they know has the male fertilize the female inside and then the baby grows in the female until she gives birth. Tilapia, however are very different. Here’s a quick rundown for the non-ichthyologists reading the blog. The male tilapia builds a nest in the bottom of the pond and brings the female fish to the nest. If she’s impressed she’ll spawn in it and then the male fertilizes her spawn thus creating a fertilized fish egg. The male leaves and the female protect the fish eggs in her mouth for 40 days (she won’t eat during this time). Then the fish leave her and go out on their own. I admit it’s a strange way of getting the job done, but I know how most animals mate so that doesn’t surprise me anymore. I suppose the Animal Channel has taken the mystery out of animal reproduction for most of us. The villagers however, had such a hard time grasping this concept. How can an animal go 40 days without eating!? Surely the female would starve to death!! If she keeps them in her mouth she’d have to eat them!! Could the fish babies survive in her stomach if she swallowed them by mistake? Why doesn’t she just keep the babies inside her instead of laying the eggs outside? If the female lays the eggs why does she need a male fish? How does the male find the females spawn if its outside her body? Etc. etc….
Not to sound condescending but it was like explaining sex to 7 yr olds. I know the beneficiaries have a limited education and I am teaching them some new concepts, but you have to admit its kind of funny to be teaching fish sex to a 50 year old village chief!

After I explained some facts to them, their faces would widen in surprise then burst out laughing. They were great about it though. I was glad that they were asking so many questions – it told me that they were listening and trying to understand. That was very important. They made a good effort to understand this material because they really wanted to know when and how fish spawned so they could take the new fish to grow another crop, or to pass the fish on to another village pond. Many of these community based fish ponds received their first fish fingerlings from CADECOMs Sustainable Agriculture pass-on project, and as a requirement of the project the beneficiaries have to pass on the fish fingerlings to the next group of beneficiaries. It’s a wonderful sustainable system, and with the addition of the training workshops future sustainability will be ensured.

I love that this project provides the beneficiaries with both the resources and knowledge they need to empower themselves. This way they can sustainably grow food and help others to as well.

Currently I am in the process of convincing the NGO that fish farming is a much better way to provide protein for the villages as opposed to goats. Their main pass-on project uses goats. Of course this is a nice idea. Give a goat to one family, then the first-born goes to another needy family and so on. Now here’s the thing – goats do not become sexually mature until they are 3yrs old. They’ll have one kid a year thereafter. Often the family does not want to eat the goat because they are status symbols. The goats seem to make their biggest contribution through the manure they provide. Now tilapia-fish on the other hand take 4 months to become sexually mature, and they spawn 3x a year. Most of these fishponds are community based – so many people benefit from the fish harvest (whereas the goat is owned by 1 family). If you invested your efforts into fish farming you would receive much more protein in return for your effort (a fish pond they are using could easily produce over 100kg fish each harvest no problem). You can have 3 harvests a year, feed more people and pass on the spawn in a matter of months. The fishpond can also produce fertilizer form the sediment on the pond bottom much like goat manure for the crops and veggies. Come on people!! How can you not see this??? Jesus used fish to feed the masses – not goats!! (Sorry the biblical reference comes from my time working with a catholic organization).

OK OK I know, I could go on and on. Sorry if I am rambling but this is what I’ve been doing for almost 3 months now. I am somewhat passionate about this.
Thankfully I am going on a safari with Anna and Christine in Liwonde National Park this weekend so I can talk about animals other than fish soon.