Briefs: Tilapia in the news

Tilapia Theft

All was well when Tampa Bay Harvest Inc. volunteers left the Florida-based community garden, located in Seminole Heights, on the evening of 24 July. The hundreds of tilapia present on the premises swam, as they usually did, in their 3,500 gallon pool, fertilizing the plants and vegetables within.

However, come the next day, the tilapia pool was nearly 200 fish short. The price of that stolen 400-pounds of tilapia? Somewhere around USD 2,000 (EUR 1,799). And the culprits, according to Will Carey, Tampa Bay Harvest executive director and the Tampa police, could definitely be “insiders.”

“Someone familiar with the solar-powered garden used a light to lure the tilapia and a cast net to capture them,” the Orlando Sentinel reported Carey as saying.

Due to the theft, Tampa Bay Harvest will not be able to grow what it had originally planned, and the tilapia stolen will no longer be wrapped and given to the local food pantry. In response to the theft, the garden has set up a gofundme page, which hopes to garner USD 5,000 (EUR 4,498), according to the Sentinel.