From Feral to Fertiliser
Engaging Community With Some Fishy Up-Cycling
Self sustenance - LEP23-035_MLLG-05
The issue
In July our Landcare Group were invited to participate in a Carp Muster and were delegated the role of cleaning up the river banks which also included any carp that were caught.
Carp is often left to rot at the side of the river after being caught and while it does degrade into soil, the smell & sight can be highly unpleasant. In addition, rotting mounds of protein can over nutrify the soil, making the patch more likely to weed growth. Further, in some locations, the protein acts as a bait attracting other feral animals thus causing additional issues.
The solution
The Carp was turned into fertiliser using Gerry Gillespie's LAB Serum. We involved the community from the outset, announcing our plans on social media & putting out a call for 200 litre buckets. The Lab serum was presented at the Carp Muster where we explained the process. We then recruited a local farmer to help store & brew the fertiliser. This caught the interest of 'The Land' who ran a story on the process. When brewed, we undertook a full chemical analysis of the brew & presented an update at a local Composting workshop before distributing the fertiliser at the last Working Bee of the year.
The impact
Keeping the community updated at every step of the way created a sense of shared ownership of both the problem (the need to clean up our rivers & keep them clean) & the opportunity (relatively free fertiliser). Highlighting the process sparked many conversations around fishing & native fish health; riparian restoration & management; composting; soil health; feral animal control & FOGO (food and organic waste) management on farms. While we didn't focus on pollutants in the rivers & fish, we also found this exercise a useful focal point from which to have those conversations. Creating carp fertiliser as a collected really felt like we were making a difference to our community.
Learnings
Engaging community in every step of a process like this works really well & empowers others to give it a go.
Investing in a chemical analysis of the final product gave us confidence to hand the product out to growers
Key facts
- Creating Compost from Carp is Easy, Engaging & Fun!