AR-News: (U.S. - N.Y.) urban fish farms

[Mary Finelli]

Letters to the Editor: letters at nytimes.com


CHASING A FISH-FARMING DREAM
The New York Times, Corey Kilgannon, March 22, 2004

complete article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/nyregion/22fish.html



It takes a tough borough to breed a tender fish, Dr. Martin P. Schreibman 
likes to say. And the roughly 3,000 Brooklyn-bred tilapia Dr. Schreibman 
grows in tanks in his aquaculture lab grow up hardy and with the requisite 
dose of attitude. To prove it, Dr. Schreibman, a biology professor at 
Brooklyn College, grabbed a handful of food pellets the other day and tossed 
them into a tilapia tank. The plump, purple fish gulped at the food in a 
frenzy that made the tank look like a Jacuzzi. But once on the dinner plate, 
they are sweet and flaky, said Dr. Schreibman, a Brooklyn native himself. 
"Two things Brooklyn water is good for," he said, reciting another of his 
catchphrases. "Making bagels and growing fish."

Dr. Schreibman, 68, has been preaching the virtues of tilapia for years - 
and growing them, too - in the lab he founded and runs as part of the 
Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center on the college's campus 
in Flatbush. And now that tilapia have become popular in restaurants and 
seafood stores, Dr. Schreibman's vision of widespread tilapia-farming in New 
York City may finally have a chance of becoming a reality. "A few years ago, 
you mention tilapia and people's eyes glaze over," he said. "Now everyone's 
talking about it."

_________________________________________________________________
Free up your inbox with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage. Multiple plans available. 
http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/