Moving from being the owner of an Information Technology company to setting up a fish farm was a huge career change for Gerard Weekes.

But having grown weary of 8 a.m. meetings and afternoon deadlines, not to mention having to wear a tie, Weekes, 47, gave up a 20-year-long affair with computers with no regrets.

He has no regrets either about venturing into the risky world of farming fish-tilapia to be exact.

"I moved from the hustle and bustle of Diego Martin to a quiet country-side home about ten years ago. I guess being surrounded by all the greenery does some-

thing to you. One morning I got up and I just didn't want to face the traffic any more," he said.

It was, of course, to the computer he turned as he looked for career options. An internet search turned up an article talking about aquaculture.

"It talked about tilapia as the 'culture species of the 21st century'," said Weekes whose career path was turning around during the time of worldwide concern over bird flu and mad cow disease.

"I was looking for some alternative to the usual meats for myself," he said referring to the scares brought on by news of the two diseases.

Weekes eventually took a short course on fish farming offered by the Government and found a group of people who shared his passion. Through this network of fish farmers, he went on to his first purchase of a set of tanks and some tilapia.

"I was kind of nervous at first, I mean I had very little knowledge about fish culture, but it was something I really wanted to do," he said.

He discovered that the task was very labour intensive. With over 10,000 fish in his tanks, he had to manually separate the males from the females to limit overpopulation. He fed the fish almost six times a day; this was when he really discovered that he'd rather feed his fish than troubleshoot computer-related problems.

Almost three years into the fish business, Weekes has since developed his own company, Tech Outsource Hatcheries.

With almost 40,000 fish, the labour demands forced him to look for a solution to making the work easier.

The Internet came to his rescue once more.

He found a company selling genetically modified tilapia, fish produced through years of scientific research and genetic modifications. The testing and development was done by a United Kingdom-based company which eventually created a fish called a genetically modified tilapia or "supermale".

"It answered all the key issues we were then experiencing with the fish," said Weekes, noting that one major aspect of this genetically modified fish was that when a supermale mated with a regular female, the union produced only male offspring.

"We no longer had to manually separate the fish. And because we were able to control breeding, we could maximise growth potential and improve the fish yield," he said.

"The fish is focused more on eating and less on reproducing; farmers would have a better product to offer and in less time," he explained. Tech Outsource Hatcheries breeds and sells supermales to fish farms.

Responding to concerns that consumers tend to be sceptical about genetically modified foods, Weekes said proper education would dispel doubts about the safety of the genetically modified tilapia.

"These fish are not hormonally treated. There are no steroids. It is a whole lot better than the imported chicken that we buy now," he laughed. With regard to the higher levels of Omega-6 fatty acids found in the fish, Weekes said that had mainly to do with the feed. "If the feed is high in fat, the fish would be high in fat," he said, recommending that farmers switch to a lower fat fish food, which, however, must be imported.

Weekes also urged farmers to improve their current fish farming methods, saying that fish farming was more than simply digging a hole and throwing in some fish.

"There is a science behind it. Having duck and goat pens near a fish farm is old technology, and people are more conscientious now than they used to be. They will not accept that low standard today. We are always experimenting and improving," he said of Tech Oursource Hatcheries.

"The tilapia industry could be lucrative. In Trinidad, conditions are ripe for increased production, the only challenge is lack of information for interested farmers.

"But you could always search the Net," he laughed.