I suppose one could look at it in two ways: 1) Tilapia is quickly becoming one of the most successful fish species in terms of offspring. One day, tilapia might be the first fish from Earth to colonize a new planet. 2) Tilapia is crammed into what can only be called an industrial feedlot of fishes. It now also has the joy of being worn as swimsuits and might soon be living underground in Arizona. Let's discuss.
Tilapia is one hot fish: it's healthy, inexpensive, and has flaky white flesh fancied by U.S. consumers. In the U.S. alone, the demand for tilapia has skyrocketed in recent years. Tilapia moved from the 9th most consumed fish in 2003 to 5th most consumed in 2006. This year, U.S. tilapia imports have risen another 17.2% through July.
One day, demand for tilapia might literally skyrocket. Tilapia possesses all the necessary attributes of space meat:
1. Herbivores
2. Small
3. Cold-blooded
4. Easily portable
And for this reason, NASA has been closely sudying the tilapia for eventual use as meat on Mars. In 1996, NASA published the report "Oxygen Consumption of Tilapia and Preliminary Mass Flows through a Prototype Closed Aquaculture System". Last year, Advances in Space Research published "Nile Tilapia As a Food Souce in Advanced Life Support Systems: Initial Considerations".
But the same attributes that make tilapia good for fish farming on Mars also make it good for fish farming on Earth. As E.O. Wilson wrote about fisheries, "What was once free for the taking, now must be manufactured." Tilapia are slowly being re-classified from 'wild' to 'domestic' (photo of intensive tilapia farm in Malaysia).
Just today, Intrafish news feed announced that four school teachers in Arizona are figuring out a way to grow tilapia in tubes underground, where the talapia won't be scorched by the hot sun of the southwest or plagued by excessive algae growth that can occur in ponds.
Maybe one day tilapia won't even be bothered by those faint memories lodged somewhere in their distant genetic history that they were once swimming freely in a shaded African river but will float quietly in their plastic tube--numbly awaiting their fate at a Martian dinner.
Environment
Comments
Come on now, those fish no more have genetic memories of peaceful swims along the Nile then I have memories of taming the old wilderness of Le Nouveau France. Indeed from the perspective of a river fish its got the perfect life, nice calm waters, easy access to food, and unlimited mates. Its river fish paradise. The only downside is the lack of natural plants to snack on, in my experience with fish keeping herbivores seem to prefer nibbling on growing plants to being fed.
Posted by: Troy | September 17, 2007 3:50 PM
One way their memories manifest themselves in behavior. Much in the same way we have yet to fully engineer a calmer, less aggressive salmon that's better adapted to life in cages (read a detailed account of the process in from a 1989 issue of NewScientist), tilapia will have a long period of adaptation that includes old behavioral responses. And maybe you don't remember your life in the wild, but some evidence of 'memory' is indeed there, lodged at the very least in that vestigial organ, the appendix.
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | September 17, 2007 4:13 PM
Yum. Tilapia. Local farmers grow it in ponds near the rice paddies. We eat it a couple times a week.(we live in rural Luzon, Philippines).
And one of our friends has a fingerling hatchery in the next provence.Farmers buy fingerlings, place them in the pond, and have a good cheap source of protein.
Posted by: nancy reyes | September 17, 2007 10:20 PM
I know you favor vegetarianism, but most people still prefer to have some kind of meat in their diet. I think it's a little overdramatic to mourn the loss of a tilapia's freedom when they would be a vastly better choice than the industrially farmed beef, chicken, salmon, etc. eaten by most Americans.
That said, "Fish Sticks from the Planet Mars!" is a B movie that I really want to see.
Posted by: Miriam Goldstein | September 18, 2007 10:31 AM
Woah. I didnt know nasa were testing Tilapia for mars.
Posted by: Tilapia Recipes | October 2, 2007 7:12 PM
QUANTOS PEIXES VOCʠCOLOCA POR METRO CڂICO?
Posted by: anderson lova | February 20, 2008 6:48 AM