At the end of August, a group of Wai Yin members travelled down to Gloucester to search for eels. There is an old nursery rhyme which goes; “Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stood in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again!” Well there was plenty of rain but we had such a wonderful time, that I am sure that we will be going again.
We went in search of baby eels! The Severn River is the home of baby eels (called elvers), It is one of Nature’s miracles that these tiny creatures are born across the Atlantic in the Saragossa Sea and then migrate back to Europe where they travel up tidal rivers to either be caught or to grow into adult eels. We were shown around the eel collecting farm and learnt all about the life cycle of eels.
We were given thirty elvers to put in our prepared tank at the Sheung Lok Centre. This adds to our collecting of farmed carp at the Centre. We are slowly building up the Wai Yin Urban Fish Farm, funded from Manchester’s Green City Initiative.
Unfortunately we will have to wait two to three years before we can tuck into a delicious meal of fried eel in black bean sauce!
