The Adventures of Island Aquaponics - Part 2

[Wayne Hall]

So I left off in my previous post explaining basically how I got interested in aquaponics, to give you an idea of the time frame, that was last summer (July/August 2010).

Needless to say I read everything I could get my hands on, in this case everything I could find on the internet. I talked with my closet friends, my business associates, family and anyone who would stand still long enough to listen.

I really didn't have a clue what I was looking for, but I figured that at least I would gain knowledge which might be useful somewhere along the way. There are so many choices in system designs, it frustrated me to no end trying to figure out which would be the best for use here in the Bahamas. We have several small commercial hydroponic farms here, I went and looked at those to get some idea of how well they operated, see what grew well, but basically they all seem to lack any imagination, and everyone grew pretty much the same thing.

Then late one night I stumbled upon a system which made me go "hmmm" they operated in basically the same climate as what we have here and they offered DIY plans which I could purchase at a reasonable price.

So I called up my older brother and talked with him and told him to have a look and tell me what he thought. We talked about it some more, I spoke with my other brother and my sister to get their feedback, and we hatch a quasi plan.

My sister had 28 acres of leased farm land which she was having difficulty doing anything with, and we all talked and decided that we would pool our resources and try and see if we couldn't get this to work. My older brother lives in the USA and has his own family and business, but he committed to helping out acquiring what he could from his end, (he has his own little garden which he is constantly sending me pictures of, he's so proud of it), my other brother has his own family business, and of course my sister is in the same boat with her own family and business, me on the other hand I'm still the bachelor (which I enjoy), and live for mostly today, because who knows what tomorrow will bring us, and I have been fortunate enough to have invested in several ventures (they don't always succeed) and have managed to tuck some funding away for a raining day. 

So I put together a development plan, based on all this newly acquired book knowledge on aquaponics, presented to the family, so that everyone was in agreement and it was decided that I would relocate and see if I could get the farm going, all of us bringing value in some form or another to this venture.

I disposed of the accumulated junk, no point in moving all that with me, quit my job, which I didn't really like anyway, and moved lock stock and barrel (what was left) to Abaco in November last year.

Of course having worked in a law firm for almost 15 years I learnt never to put all my eggs in one basket, so when I got here I put the contingency plan in motion, just in case.

Enough for now, when I write again I will give some more insight over the last six months.

Until another post