2003-09-19 kfar ripkin profile

2003-09-19 Kfar Ruppin profile

Israel-Cities

Kfar Ruppin

Wings over Galilee

Fish-farming kibbutz hosts
millions of air travelers

San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, Sept. 19, 2003

By Donald H. Harrison

KFAR RUPPIN, Israel—This kibbutz has become a popular tourist destination with half a billion
visitors per year. These tourists are high-flying, but unfortunately they don't spend any money. In fact, many regularly freeload their meals from Kfar Ruppin's income-producing fish ponds.

Nevertheless, the 300 residents of Kfar Ruppin never seem to tire of the twice annual fly-overs by these visitors as they migrate to Europe for the summer and to Africa for the winter. Even if the many varieties of migrating birds don't directly produce any money for the kibbutz, they are an important factor in its eco-future.

Located south of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and less than a kilometer west of the international boundary with Jordan, Kfar Ruppin may be one of the best places in the world to learn both about fish and birds.

Esther Weinstein, a spokesperson for Keren Kayemet L'Israel (known in the United States as the Jewish National Fund), recently conducted Yoni and Sigal Peres of Ramat Gan and me on a tour here to show us some of the things that JNF does in addition to its well-known program of tree planting.

Weinstein had chosen this particular JNF project because of its San Diego County connections. The fish ponds, which are an important part of the kibbutz's economy, were largely financed with a $1 million grant from the late restaurateur Mel Garb, his late sister, Genesse Levin, and Genesse's widower, Harrison Levin, owner of four McDonald¹s franchises in San Diego
County.

With the help of the Jewish National Fund some 60 years ago, the swamps in this area were drained, fields were planted and a Jewish community was created to stand a defensive watch on the Jordan, Weinstein said.

Rather than permit all the fresh water from the Kinneret to flow down the Jordan River as it had for centuries into the salty Dead Sea, Israel pumped some of the river water up into fresh-water reservoirs, thus safeguarding agriculture in the area. Eventually, Kfar Ruppin decided to stock the
reservoirs with fish— principally tilapia, but also carp, mullet and red drums— thereby creating a new source of livelihood for the kibbutz.

Today, water in the reservoirs is replenished by rain and from brackish underwater springs. Water exiting the Kinneret to the Jordan River no longer is so freely available. As a result of peace agreements, some of the water is reserved for the neighboring nation of Jordan. Even more is diverted into Israel's National Water Carrier to satisfy a thirsty nation.

David Glasner, director of the International Bird Watching Center of the Jordan Valley in Israel, recalling the words of a famous American Negro spiritual, said once it was true that "River Jordan is chilly and wide," but that no longer is the case. Today, he said, "the mighty River Jordan, I have to apologize, is a very little creek."

While migratory birds can be found anywhere in a 100-kilometer swath between
the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordanian desert, Israel's narrow Jordan Valley is the most heavily used corridor because of favorable winds and thermals.

Thermal heat rising from the valley assist "storks, pelicans, gliders and raptors" that rely on gliding as much as possible to cover migratory routes ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers, Glasner said. Some storks migrate all the way from Northern Europe to South Africa in the winter, covering the route as quickly as they can and without eating. Sometimes, however, they
become exhausted from the difficult journey and "we find them here, collapsing."

With the River Jordan down to creek levels, the migratory birds are attracted to the water— and in some cases, the fish — of Kfar Ruppin's fish ponds, Glasner said.

Some species, like ducks and herons, winter at Kfar Ruppin, while others that are just passing through "have to rest, and they have to feed a little bit," said Glasner. "They eat some fish, which makes some problems, but mostly they eat the little fish and the dead fish."

Others do feed on full-grown live fish, and to keep those birds away from its best ponds, Kfar Ruppin lures them to other ponds. Live fish are caught in nets that are raised close to the surface of the pond. The birds see these sacrificial fish and concentrate on these easy catches. Of course,
some find their way to the other ponds and more than a few get caught and die in protective overhead netting.

Glasner also works to make certain a second important industry of the kibbutz — field agriculture — doesn¹t adversely affect the migrating bird population. "We work to reduce the use of pesticides, to take care of the birds," he said.

In addition to its preservation efforts, the International Bird Watching Center of the Jordan Valley also is involved in education and research. Classes for kindergarteners through senior citizens are held at the center.

The staff of four kibbutz members also catches some migratory birds and rings them with a distinctive identification band in an effort to learn to where they fly.

"Sometimes they are caught in England, Germany, Russia or Finland," Glasner said. Recently, at a kibbutz about 20 kilometers away, a student interested in the eating habits of local barn owls was surprised when she cut through a fecal pellet and found a band that an owl had been unable to digest. It was that of a ³reed warbler that had been ringed in Kfar Ruppin a year ago. It
went all the way to Europe and back" before it was eaten by the owl.

Bird watchers often stay at the kibbutz not only during times of migration but also off-season because there are certain birds indigenous to the area that they might not see elsewhere. Among them are the Dead Sea sparrow, the reed warbler and the black francolin. Weinstein said JNF has plans to develop a chain of birdwatching stations up and down the eastern border of
Israel.

Fish farming at Kfar Ruppin occurs in four reservoirs, the largest of which covers 60 acres over a depth averaging between four and five meters. Tilapia accounts for 70 percent of Kfar Ruppin's production, according to Nir Froyman, who manages the kibbutz's hatchery. He is one of eight kibbutz members who work at the ponds, although there are numerous employees from
outside.

In many restaurants, particularly those frequented by Christian pilgrims, tilapia is sold as St. Peter¹s Fish, named for the fish described in Christian scriptures that the apostle caught in the Sea of Galilee. The fish had lodged in its mouth a coin sufficient to pay taxes.

Until about 20 years ago, the kibbutz produced even more carp than tilapia, finding that Israeli housewives liked to chop it up as one of the ingredients in gefilte fish, Froyman said. Carp continues to be the top product of other fish farms in the country, but at Kfar Ruppin tilapia is
king. Nevertheless, two species of carp are being raised at the kibbutz. One species, the silver carp, originally was imported from China.

Another species, known as the grass carp, eats grasses that grow alongside the pond and keeps algae under control. Another fish, the red drum, was imported from the United States for the purpose of population control. After the reservoir water levels are lowered and the tilapia are harvested for market, some small fry remain in the ponds "which we don't need and they
just eat for free." The red drum eats the young tilapia. Its name comes from the male's habit of hitting the water with its red tail during spawning season.

Froyman occasionally winces when he sees birds swoop down "to enjoy themselves with a free meal" at his ponds, but he says there also are benefits to their freeloading.

Some birds help the kibbutzniks "see in which reservoir we have an illness or some kind of sickness among the fish, because the birds know it before we do," Froyman said. "They have their food and we have their ecological sixth sense!"