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By Michael Gagne
By filleting the fish, most of the flesh is taken for cooking, and no gutting or scaling is necessary. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
Some of the blue tilapia raised at Bristol County Agricultural High School are seen on ice at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, where students from both schools worked to fillet the 132 fish, and prepare them for eating. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
Bristol Aggie Natural Resources Management Department Chairman Brian Basterache keeps a watchful eye on the filleting in progress, as his student, senior Hollie Stanhope starts on the second side of her fish. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
“They got here at 9:30 this morning, and were swimming at 8 this morning. It doesn’t get much fresher than that,” Botelho said.
Those tilapia were farm-raised in a large tank at Bristol County Agricultural High School, part of that school’s aquaculture and natural resources management program.
The goal was to have students at both schools learn each end of production: Diman students learned how the fish were produced, and then Bristol Aggie students would learn how that fish is prepared for consumption. The project started two years ago.
When Bristol Aggie students were raising the fish, from the time they were fingerlings, Diman students visited to check on their progress, even taking fish out to weigh them. They waited until the tilapia had grown to market weight — between one to two pounds — before preparing them for consumption.
Botelho called it the “journey from tank to plate.”
“We’re sitting down to eat it now — even the kids that don’t like fish,” he said.
Using their freshly delivered and filleted tilapia, a group of 25 Diman and Bristol Aggie students made fish and chips and baked stuffed tilapia, stuffed with a cracker-and-crabmeat stuffing.
Botelho said he and instructors at Bristol Aggie have already begun discussing potential upcoming projects, including possibly raising catfish and crawfish in a similar manner.
“It’s kind of all about sustainability,” Botelho said. “The big lesson, the one we’re trying to hit home, is for years now the natural fish stocks in the wild, just are getting depleted year after year after year. That turns into more regulation for the fishermen.”
Tilapia turned out to be a good species of fish to use for the program’s trial run.
There's plenty of work to be done, as Diman Voke and Bristol Aggie students fillet 132 blue tilapia. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
Herald News Staff Reporter
By filleting the fish, most of the flesh is taken for cooking, and no gutting or scaling is necessary. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
Some of the blue tilapia raised at Bristol County Agricultural High School are seen on ice at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, where students from both schools worked to fillet the 132 fish, and prepare them for eating. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
Bristol Aggie Natural Resources Management Department Chairman Brian Basterache keeps a watchful eye on the filleting in progress, as his student, senior Hollie Stanhope starts on the second side of her fish. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
FALL RIVER — The 132 tilapia that students in Scott Botelho’s culinary arts class at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School learned how to fillet Wednesday morning were swimming less than two hours before they were delivered to their kitchen.
“They got here at 9:30 this morning, and were swimming at 8 this morning. It doesn’t get much fresher than that,” Botelho said.
Those tilapia were farm-raised in a large tank at Bristol County Agricultural High School, part of that school’s aquaculture and natural resources management program.
The goal was to have students at both schools learn each end of production: Diman students learned how the fish were produced, and then Bristol Aggie students would learn how that fish is prepared for consumption. The project started two years ago.
When Bristol Aggie students were raising the fish, from the time they were fingerlings, Diman students visited to check on their progress, even taking fish out to weigh them. They waited until the tilapia had grown to market weight — between one to two pounds — before preparing them for consumption.
Botelho called it the “journey from tank to plate.”
“We’re sitting down to eat it now — even the kids that don’t like fish,” he said.
Using their freshly delivered and filleted tilapia, a group of 25 Diman and Bristol Aggie students made fish and chips and baked stuffed tilapia, stuffed with a cracker-and-crabmeat stuffing.
Botelho said he and instructors at Bristol Aggie have already begun discussing potential upcoming projects, including possibly raising catfish and crawfish in a similar manner.
“It’s kind of all about sustainability,” Botelho said. “The big lesson, the one we’re trying to hit home, is for years now the natural fish stocks in the wild, just are getting depleted year after year after year. That turns into more regulation for the fishermen.”
Tilapia turned out to be a good species of fish to use for the program’s trial run.
“Fish like tilapia can be something that can be grown relatively cheaply, in a relatively small amount of space that’s healthy and nutritious,” Botelho said.
“It’s a very mild fish. It takes on the flavors of what you do with it, and it’s becoming increasingly popular in U.S. Most of it is farm raised, so the market on it is pretty stable.”
Americans consume roughly 475 million pounds of tilapia every year, Botelho said, and “it’s on the rise.”
“This was a great collaborative thing we did,” Botelho said. “I hope the relationship between Diman and Bristol Aggie continues and grows.”
There's plenty of work to be done, as Diman Voke and Bristol Aggie students fillet 132 blue tilapia. Herald News Photo | Jack Foley
