Fish Live on Farms?

No, fish actually live "in" farms.  This afternoon, we built not one, but two fish farms for a local farmer. As we stood at the edge of the large field, looking out at dried up rice fields, we couldn't understand where our farms were going to be placed. We shouldn't have doubted the engineers.

When I first heard that we were ‘fish farming’ I had no idea what to expect. It turns out that what we did was much more intensive than I had expected. When we hopped in the truck to head to the site, I saw saws and long cuts of wood branches [eucalyptus tree branches - very, very hard wood] in the truck. I realized that what we were doing was going to be a little more strenuous than making little fish bowls. We arrived at what appeared to be an empty lot with a field behind it. The second we got out of our song-taews (trucks), we felt the scorching sun beaming down on us. Our first task was to saw the long wood branches into the proper sizes. Personally, I realized how bad I am at carpentry when I had to call someone over to finish sawing through my branch. I decided to remove myself from the woodwork and go to the spot where a couple of girls were working with string and fish netting. They decided to make me a fishnet sewer, which meant sewing together the long blue fishnets that we applied over our wooden structures. With the help of a couple friends, I sewed together the fish nets while others hammered together the wooden structures. The hammerers became a lot more winded than the sewers, and most of them were exhaustedly sipping water on a song-taew by the time I was done. We tied the nets to the structures, and five girls carried five bags of fish while those of us with a little more energy carried the fish farms. The walk was a lot longer than I had expected; eight or nine of us had to carry the structures all the way across the field. We arrived at a lagoon that the two structures would be placed in. The brave ones among us took off their shoes to get into the water and settle the structures. The bottom of the lagoon was clay, and some of us sunk deep into it. Finally, once the fish were released into their new homes, we got to pack up and escape the scathing heat.     ~ Shannon

The first steps were to measure the wood branches and then to cut them to  a prescribed length.
The wood was very, very hard.

The two frames came together very nicely.  It was brutally hot by the time we started hammering the frames together.

Two large pieces of netting were sewn together, one for each of the frames. 

1000 fish would ultimately be released.

Adding the finishing touches - the netting is secured to the frame.

The completed fish farm.

Where in this empty field was there water?
We walked over and through rice fields and came upon a pond.

"We" clearing the way for the two fish farms.

Without a moments hesitation, several of the team members volunteered to enter the pond, carrying the fish farm with them.

The second fish farm making its way in to the pond.

The fish were added to each of the farms.  Mud was taken from the bottom of the pond and placed on the inside of the fish farm. In about 3 weeks to a month, the engineers and Rustic staff will return to the feed the fish.  Ultimately, the fish farm serves three purposes: The farmer will be able to feed his family; the farmer will be able to take fish to market to sell: the farmer will be able to release some fish into the wild as a way to increase his good karma.

Success!  Fish Farms "planted".