Gator Gumbo
Hot springs an ideal environment for exotic species
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
When Leo Ray lists the animals he raises on his
aquaculture farm in Buhl, it is hard not to focus on alligators despite
the many other unusual aspects of his business.
Yes, he raises alligators for their meat and skin, but he
also raises two kinds of catfish, tilapia, sturgeon and trout.
Leo Ray, owner of Fish Processors, Inc.,
in Buhl, examines some of the hundreds of tanned skins he hopes Idaho
leather craftsmen will turn into finished products like boots, belts and
coats.
While sturgeon, trout and catfish occur naturally in
Idaho, tilapia don’t belong here anymore than alligator does, because
the bass-like fish from Africa need warmth to survive, too. But Ray
conceived the potential for a catfish farm when he visited Hagerman in
1971 and saw the constantly available supply of hot water from hot
springs.
All he had to do was add a little cold water, and he could
create the 85-degree environment that catfish grow best in.
Shortly after his visit, he bought a place in Buhl that
had hot springs and started Fish Breeders of Idaho Inc., raising two types
of catfish—channel and blue catfish.
Then he added tilapia, an African and Southeast Asian fish
that also needs a constant warm environment.
At first he grew tilapia to sell to farms in California
and Arizona to control the growth of vegetation in irrigation canals.
Butchers do their job on a recently
harvested alligator. Leo Ray raises the animals for their meat and skins.
The fat from alligators is used in women’s cosmetics.
When buyers discovered the grass carp did a more efficient
job than the tilapia, he turned to raising the fish for meat.
In 1978, he started raising trout, and in 1988, sturgeon.
Alligator came to the farm in 1994.
Tilapia and alligator are exotic species, and because they
are not native to Idaho, Ray is closely regulated by the Idaho Department
of Fish and Game and Idaho Department of Agriculture.
Asked if either animal had ever escaped, Ray granted that
tilapia have, but no alligators.
The tilapia, he said, die almost immediately because they
cannot survive in 60-degree water or lower. He said alligators would
suffer the same fate.
Ray is used to the notoriety of raising alligators in
Idaho. Since seeing is believing this curiosity, he keeps a few `gators
outdoors inside a security fence. They stay warm in their naturally hot
water, or they sun themselves along the bank of the pool.
The majority of his alligators live in alligator barns—long,
rectangular buildings with a peaked roof, more underground than above. One
barn, round with a domed roof, looks like a large yurt. Both types of
barns are insulated and locked.
Inside, an elevated catwalk over the alligator pool allows
feeders and harvesters access to the animals.
The catwalks are railed to keep people from falling in and
alligators from climbing out.
Just the same, Ray said he is careful whenever he opens
the barn doors. Every now and then an alligator manages to get on the
catwalk.
The temperature inside the barns is maintained at 85
degrees to 90 degrees by the hot spring water, and the humidity is 100
percent.
Think of a steam bath, and you’ll have an idea of what
it is like inside—except for the smell. After weighing the chance of a
loose alligator, that is most likely the thing to be taken into account
before entering.
But odors are expected on a farm¾ as is a thrifty and
efficient use of resources.
Ray said he started raising alligators primarily as
another animal to harvest for profit, but he said alligators had another
faculty he found highly valuable.
They eat the leftovers from the fish he harvests. Instead
of throwing out the parts of fish people don’t want to eat, Ray feeds
them to his alligators.
That is a distinct advantage over most alligator farmers,
he said. Most alligator farms in the United States are in the Southeast
and Gulf states, where farmers use manufactured feed.
Ray said that by the time an alligator gets to be 4 feet
long in the South, it is harvested. To grow it any larger, the farmer is
losing money from the cost of feed.
Ray likes to say his alligator feed is free—leftovers
from the processing plant and dead fish from the fish farms.
Because of that, he can grow his alligators to 10 feet in
length, though his average harvested animal is 6 to 8 feet long. That
means not only more meat per animal but also more hide.
Ray said he sells the meat, wholesale, for more than beef.
And, he said, he has a hard time keeping up with demand from the West
Coast, from San Diego to Vancouver.
Last year he harvested 1,000 alligators—that translates
into 30,000 pounds of meat.
One of his buyers is the supermarket chain Winco, which
operates more than 34 stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington.
He didn’t say how much he gets per pound, but the
Florida Department of Agriculture reports that alligator meat is sold at
$5 to $7 per pound to restaurants.
The "green" or untanned skin sells, on average,
for $35 a foot. A tanned skin sells for $40 to $50 a foot.
Once tanned, the skins are surprisingly pliable and soft.
Even though alligator pajamas are unlikely, they would be soft enough to
sleep in.
Ray said his wife was uninterested in alligator skins for
the longest time until one day she asked about a particular shipment.
Ray said after he told her the skins were going to Ralph
Lauren to make a $75,000 alligator coat, she became more interested.
As a forward-looking sort, Ray has several projects going
on in his head for the future.
One is to find Idaho leather workers to turn his alligator
hides into finished products. Until recently, all of his skins were sold
outside Idaho. Now he is selling his tanned skins instate.
Another of his plans is to start producing caviar from the
sturgeon he raises. He said that until recently, harvesting caviar would
have required killing the fish, but now there are methods for harvesting
without dispatching the fish. With caviar prices at $100 a pound, Ray is
planning to try the caviar business in a couple of years.
Tropical fish might also be in his future.
Already he’s successful growing the tropical tilapia
fish. He and other aquaculturists may one day raise most of the tropical
fish sold in the United States.
