Public Project
Haiti Lake Azuei Fish Farm
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Haiti Lake Azuei Fish Farm
Location: Detroit, Michigan, 48212 United States of America
Nationality: Haitian
Focus:
Photographer, Photojournalist, Videographer, Video Editor, Photo Assistant, Documentary, Video, Photo Editor, Photography, Portraiture, Director of Photography, International News, Freelance, Multimedia Journalist, Storyteller, Visual Artist, News Reporter, Visual Editor, International Photo Editor, Photo Coordinator, Feature Stories, International Stories, Digital Media Production, Breaking News
Covering:
Latin America,
USA & Canada
School:
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
Haitian brothers Hans and Patrick Woolley returned to their home country to build a fish farming business on Lake Azuei. The lake has a history of flooding homes in the border town of Fond Parisien and blocking a key highway into the Dominican Republic.
The Woolleys inherited some land along the shore and purchased more in the 1970s to raise crawfish. However, the land remained unused until they decided to try fish farming a few years ago. They now use fish cages just below the lake surface to produce affordable fish for Haitians, who have been complaining about a lack of fish.
The cousins, who are U.S. university graduates, operate their startup, Taino Aqua Fish, near the ghostly ruins of flooded homes sitting in the lake. They want to change the perception that fish is a luxury in Haiti and make it more widely available.
The Woolleys' fish firm has become a popular employer. People approach the company for work, including residents of Fond Parisien who previously sought jobs elsewhere in Haiti or in the more prosperous Dominican Republic.
The Woolleys' mission is to invest in their home country and try their luck at fish farming in Haiti, less than an hour away from the capital of Port-au-Prince.
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, Taino Aqua Fish's workers remove fish from a cage containing fish in Lake Azuei Fond Parisien, Haiti. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, a Taino Aqua Fish worker throws food to tilapia fish being grown within a netted area in Lake Azuei Fond in Parisien, Haiti. Hatchlings are raised on a vegetable-based feed and are ready to sell after four months. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, a Taino Aqua Fish worker cleans a large fish cage on Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. The cages are cleaned out once a day, when workers remove some fish that were killed by very gusty wind, to avoid live fish from eating them. (Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, Taino Aqua Fish worker Berthony Nelson removes tilapia from a cage in Lake Azuei Fond Parisien, Haiti. A week's crop can reach 20,000 pounds. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 26, 2018 photo, a Taino Aqua Fish worker strains freshly killed and gutted tilapia at the factory on the shore of Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Many residents from this border town have long looked for jobs elsewhere in Haiti, or more often in the more prosperous Dominican Republic, but now people approach this fish company that got started in 2014. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 19, 2018 photo, an alligator sunbathes in the water treatment area of the Taino Aqua Farm fish plant, next to Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. The fish farm treats the water that gets bloody from the processing of its tilapia fish, before sending it to the town's sewage system. The alligator was acquired from a local fisherman and put here to isolate it, where workers feed it and give it fresh water. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, a Taino Aqua Fish worker cleans tilapia as children take a field trip to the company on Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. One of the company's goals is to make fish affordable for all Haitians. (Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 19, 2018 photo, Taino Aqua Fish's worker put the sticker on the packaging in the factory next to Lake Azuei Fond Parisien, Haiti. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 20, 2018 photo, fisherman Miguel Louis checks on his nets with his 12-year-old son Dabens Louis, placed amid old, abandoned, flooded homes on Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. A fish farming company growing tilapia set up their operation on this lake in 2014. "Even small fish are hard to find" said Louis. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 26, 2018 photo, Gerline Louis, the six-year-old daughter of fisherman Miguel Louis, carries the five fish her father caught in Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Most people in this small border town, like Louis' family, get most of their meals from fish from the lake. (Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 17, 2018 photo, Taino Aqua Fish worker Berthony Nelson pulls out a cage containing fish in Lake Azuei Fond Parisien, Haiti. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 26, 2018 photo, people ride in a loaded truck, serving as public transportation, on the highway that leads to the Dominican Republic along the shore of Lake Azuei in Fond Parisien, Haiti. (Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 29, 2018 photo, a fish vendor picks out fish for her client at the biggest fish market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The capital's main fish market opens as early as 3 am, selling local fish from all over the island's coasts. (Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Port-au-Prince HTI
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© 2024 Dieu-Nalio Chery
In this April 26, 2018 photo, Marjorie Dorcena cooks tilapia from Taino Aqua Fish farm for a guest staying at a small hotel known as a guest house in Fond Parisien, Haiti. In a country where most people live on less than $2 a day, Taino tilapia costs about $3.50 a pound, which is $2 less than the more common pink fish. ( Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Fond Parisien HTI
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