Anglers delight!

Fish farming in Babil?

Sgt. Terry Alan Horn with his 50 lb. Iraqi carp.

Today we threw on our armor vests and drove off to visit the Euphrates Fish Farm (EFF, as it is known here), which is the site of a big multi-million dollar project to expand carp production.

Carp, of course, seem to be beloved by all the world except by North Americans, who still consider the fish trash.

Photo by Field and Stream

The project is moving along and at the end of the day Iraq will soon have several million more carp to eat.

Some will be exported down to Diwaniyah, but the Poles will be gone by the time that the carp are big enough to be eaten. (Both Poles and Czechs love their carp. It is their Christmas specialty.)

Did you know, for example, that carp scales are like trees? The EFF Director yanked one scale off a pregnant female -- don't tell PETA -- and showed me five rings for five years.

I now know way more about carp than I thought was possible!