Finding a lot on his plate

Scarborough student tops Maine State Science Fair with paper on frozen fish

SCARBOROUGH — For any other teenager, a disappointing dinner might be cause for a scowl, an upturned nose, or maybe a little under-the-breath grumbling. But one Scarborough freshman has turned his spoiled supper into an award-winning science project.

Ting-Ju “Woody” Chiang took first place in the Chemistry, Computer Science and Math portion of the 2012 Maine State Science Fair, held March 23 at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, with his paper "Evaluating the Carbon Footprint of Imported Frozen Cod and Pollock Fillets in New England."

“Almost every dinner, my parents go buy fish and one time they bought frozen filet because they did not have time to go buy fresh at a market,” explained Chiang. “So, I got to thinking about the difference between the frozen, hard, chunky fish compared to what I was used to.”

While online Googling just what his parents had served him, Chiang stumbled across information about the fishing industry and the transportation needed to ship cod from fishing grounds in Alaska and Norway to his ancestral China for processing, and then to markets in Maine. That trail is taken by almost 80 percent of the frozen fish in local supermarket freezers.

“I just kept on exploring the topic and I found a lot of information about transportation, which is a big thing in frozen fillet product,” he said. “I got more interested in it and I just kept on going and found some awesome data.”

That data, presented in Chiang’s science fair project, shows that about 0.8 tons of carbon dioxide, a leading “greenhouse gas” popularly blamed for global warming, are pumped into the atmosphere for every ton of fish sent on the 29,000-mile trade route from Norway to China, and on to Boston. That was good for 35,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide produced for the 56,179 metric tons of fillet imported in 2011.

“Between all these trips, a huge amount of carbon is emitted,” said Chiang.

And although the price for frozen, breaded fillets is about the same as fresh fish, Chiang’s sampling of 22 products from Scarborough and Portland stores showed the frozen version contained just 66 percent actual fish meat (the rest being the breading and water weight), making it as much as $7.32 more expensive, pound-for-pound.

Chiang also calculated the so-called “social cost” of frozen fish. Using data from the Congressional Budget Office, which claims it costs $25 to reduce one ton of carbon dioxide emissions, Chiang found that clean-up costs $890,000 per year, or $19.95 per metric ton eaten in New England.

“So, when you buy a frozen filet in the supermarket, you are actually paying the listed price plus the tax needed to reduce the carbon to get the product into the market,” said Chiang. “My opinion is that people should prefer to buy the fresh fillet from a local fish market. It’s cheaper and it helps the local economy and it’s environmentally friendly, because there are not barges traveling all around the world.”

Chiang’s father, Frank Chiang, says his son’s prize-winning project has only increased his desire to support local fishermen.

“As parents, we are very, very happy with Woody’s performance, but most important is his attitude to learn and to research on his own,” said Frank Chiang. “Personally, I find his results very interesting and it should also be interesting to local consumers. When they make their decision, they might think twice.”

For his part, Woody Chiang admits that although curiosity led his way, “about 10 percent” of him was motivated by the $200 savings bond he won for his efforts. Sadly, he says, none of his Scarborough classmates got a chance to try and wrest away his first-place winnings; he was the only student from Scarborough to enter the state science fair.

Jackson Labs, which took over administration of the fair in 2010, reported just 153 applications to this year’s event. The good news is that’s up 47 percent from last year; the bad news is entrants came from just 10 high schools, along with a smattering of home-schooled students.

That lack of participation cleared the way for Greely High School in Cumberland to capture 57 percent of the available awards. 

The Chiang family moved to Maine six months ago from California, where Woody’s older sister competed in science fairs. He was disappointed, he says, when his science teacher in Scarborough did not seem to know of any similar events locally. Chiang said he managed to find and enter the Maine State Science Fair entirely on his own.

“I really do think Scarborough students should participate more in the science fair,” said Chiang. “Next year, it should definitely be more than just one.

Chiang may or may not be one of those participants. If so, he’ll probably enter one of the biology events, given that he hopes for a career in the medical field. Still, he said, it was good to research an industry so vital to his new home. About 9,000 metric tons of cod are landed in New England waters.

“I know I am going to live in Maine at least until I get out of high school, so it was good to get to know the local expertise,” said Chiang.