What is fish without an ‘I'?  Fsssshhh. 

What is fish without an I...OLR?  A dwindling food resource, as the seas become overfished and natural populations become scarce.  Land-based aquaculture grows in importance as marine food sources decline.  Research on how to do it in the most environmentally sustainable manner while still being economically feasible is vital. And if you don't like fish, how about anti-cancer agents?  Or edible algae?  Or luxury foods for the export market?  Or a delicious health food that can grow in otherwise unusable (overly-saline) soil?

Not just the marine creatures are struggling to remain a viable resource.  Like scientific institutions in America such as NOAA or Fermilab (the United States's last particle physics lab), which suffer more and more funding cutbacks, Eilat's IOLR-NCM* is also in a struggle for its survival.  IOLR probably does not have a philanthropic scientist waiting in the wings to donate $5m, as just happened with Fermilab to keep it afloat awhile longer, and the government is tossing IOLR from agency to agency like an orphaned child.  A ministerial decision, purportedly to save (government) money, put IOLR under the Ministry of Infrastructure.  Discovering now that this made things worse, not better, there are now manoeuvrings to get it transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.  Meanwhile, more and more staff have been laid off and research projects foregone over recent years.

If the ongoing financial struggle weren't bad enough, IOLR suffered another blow.  Last November a fire consumed most of the main building, killing hundreds of fish, ruining tens of ongoing experiments, and completely destroying many labs, facilities, and offices.  This did not break the spirit of the researchers there, however.  They have carried on from improvised facilities, homes, and with the generous aid of Eilat's other marine biology facility, the InterUniversity Institute located on the South Beach.   All were thankful that no human lives were lost.

Rebuilding is happening slowly but surely, but the burnt-out shell where labs, offices, fish ponds, the hatchery and reproduction facilities, and more used to be, is sad to see.  Going upstairs from the ground floor and decanting onto a bare expanse with empty sky where the first floor used to be, and looking down onto bare open expanses where a whole teeming network of rooms, ponds, and labs had been, is still a shock.  A couple of the labs and offices in one wing which remained intact have been cleaned of the soot and asbestos fibres released by the fire, and are now re-commissioned for use.  Eventually they all will be, and the destroyed ones rebuilt.  But it won't bring back the fish, the lost research, or the 30 years worth of gone-forever materials and mementos that some of the researchers lost. 

One thing that could ease a lot of their pain would be word from on high that after years of uncertainty, the IOLR's continued existence, and hence their continued jobs, is ensured.  Not just to keep food on their tables, but to keep it on all of ours.  The research being done there is vital for the future of our food supply - something that government agencies who see only dollar signs tend to forget.

            * Israel Oceanographical and Limnological Research - National Centre for Mariculture (Heker Yamim veAgamim, located on the North Beach near the Jordanian border).