Composting Fish

• 1). Mark the center of the new composting area with a stone or stick. Drive two metal fence posts into the ground 3 feet from the center mark and on opposite sides. Drive two more posts 3 feet from the center on a line perpendicular to the first, forming a square.
  
  
• 2). Cover the ground between the posts with a 3-inch deep layer of rough cellulose waste like wood chips, sawdust or tree leaves. Use materials that normally are difficult to compost, not lawn clippings or household garbage that composts quickly.
  
  
• 3). Add no more than a 1-inch deep layer of fish guts, heads, fins, bones and whatever else remains, including old bait. Add fish waste to rough cellulose waste in a one to three ratio by volume, not counting a top cover layer. Scatter a shovel full of good soil or active compost over the fish.
  
  
• 4). Cover the composting fish wastes with a 3-inch deep layer of high cellulose debris. Add a second layer of fish entrails and carcasses if available and continue the layering process, keeping the volume of fish to cellulose at one to three. Seed the layers with soil or compost. Always cap the fish parts with a top layer of clean compost material.
  
  
• 5). Circle the compost heap with welded wire fencing connected to the posts with wire fence clips. Overlap the ends of the fencing and secure with fencing clips. Make sure no gaps exist between fencing and ground. Animals could squeeze through and disrupt the pile. Sprinkle the pile with water--enough to dampen the materials without run-off--and cover the pile loosely with a plastic tarp.
  
  
• 6). Check the compost heap in three months by digging into the heap. The fish remains will have decomposed. Finished compost should be light in weight, gray in color and smell slightly of ammonia. If the pile still emits heat, turn the outer layers towards the center and add water. Let the pile continue composting until uniform in color and texture. The final volume of a sawdust and fish waste heap should be nearly the same as the original pile.