A (Dead) Fish Story

Tom Mawn with dead fish haul

During a previous outbreak of red tide off the west coast of Florida, a few of us spent some time considering alternative ways to look at the dead fish. Our local governments view the dead fish that land on the beach and float in canals as debris that we must pay to dispose of. But that seems so recklessly wasteful. Fish parts have traditionally been used to improve plant strength and vigor. In fact, a little digging yielded this tidbit - people actually pay for fish scraps. Couldn't we take advantage of the fish washing up on our shores to fertilize our gardens?

The first concern - are there any health risks to using fish that have died due to red tide? The general consensus seems to be that nature will simply decompose the fish along with whatever algae they have accumulated. The second concern - would we be adding salt from the ocean to the soil? Evidently, saltwater fish have evolved ways to remove excess salt while keeping the water they need. Great news!

As for the messy details of disseminating or broadcasting the fish in the garden, we needed to do a bit of research. I sometimes spray fish emulsion liquid on the leaves of trees to provide sorely needed nutrients. Could I just throw the fish in a blender? My recollection from history class is that Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to bury fish alongside maize seed at planting time. We could dig holes and bury fish. Or we could dig a deep trench around large fruit trees and bury the fish there. After some trial and error, we settled on the spread-and-bury technique. Spread a thick layer of fish and then bury it under several inches of wood chips.

Collect ....  Spread .... Bury

We immediately placed a table and four chairs around one of these heaps. Amazingly there was no odor. And no critters dug up our buried treasure.

That is all old news. Fast forward to today. If you go down to the beach, you will notice that there are currently no dead fish lying around at the LSPOA beach access. The red tide may make it irritating to breathe, but for the time being, there are no dead fish. Don't thank Sarasota County for disposing of it. Thank Tom Mawn, our neighbor, who carted out several wheelbarrows full of the precious stuff.

Tom Mawn collecting dead fish at sunset

~DD