Fishing is huge up here…beyond huge…titanically
huge.
As you’re well aware, it’s the reason many, many
folks come to the North Country. And there are
folks within the park who truly like fish. Not to eat. I
mean really like them — appreciate their beauty,
their grace, their smarts. Okay, not all, but a lot.
I don’t fish. I’ve tried in various lakes and streams
but the only thing that ends up on my stringer is a
string of bad words. The weeds, the knots, the
attempts at pulling a hook out of a fish’s mouth
without ultimately pulling its guts out…not for me.
Plus the time it takes! Waiting for fish to bite, to me,
is torture. I’d rather be waiting for clothes to dry.
Of course, waiting for fish to bite is actually good for
a writer because 90 percent of writing is thinking
about what you’re going to write. And lord knows,
with me holding the pole, there’s plenty of time to
think. And one thought I had waiting to land the big
one was about the activities in a fish’s life:
Ever wonder what fish do down there all day?
After all, in a lake or ocean there are no cute little
castles to swim through, no colorful gravel or fake
little divers to trade aquatic jokes with. There’s
only…water. Okay, there may be a sunken relic they
can play around in now and again. Coral’s fun.
Weeds are nice for hide-and-seek, but I’m talking
about fish aspirations. Do they ever wish they could
go bowling? Or go shopping in Plattsburgh? Or get
together with friends for a game of Go Fish?
I only ask because I ran across this tidbit online the
other day:
Fish can now drive cars.
Before you call the Enterprise offices and ask Ms.
Izzo where she found such a chowder head of a
writer, hear me out. Or, better still, check out this
link (after you finish reading this fine piece of
journalism, of course) and see for yourself:
https://youtu.be/-DBAY7ywPpo?si=FcdyQ3v7Uzb8hV0W
You won’t see a mackerel driving an F-150 or a carp
parallel parking its Lexus. But you will see a little
goldfish steering its “car” time and time again over
to receive a reward in the form of a food pellet. So,
not only can a fish drive a car, he or she can actually
steer it exactly where they want to go! Shopping in
Plattsburgh? Bowling? A game of Go Fish? Pile in,
gang! And bring the school!
It is, of course, an experiment that simply proves
that fish can learn. That if they point their car over
to the right spot, they’ll be rewarded…like we do at
a drive-thru window!
Now, I think we all knew that fish have brains. And,
like most other animals, I think we all assumed that
fish could learn. That’s why they’re so hard to
catch! Maybe that’s why they stopped hitting your
spoon or your rubber worm….they’ve learned not
to fall for that one anymore. So, to me, that’s not
the only fascinating part of this experiment.
The fascinating part to me is less about the fish’s
intelligence, and more about the intelligence of the
humans who devised the experiment, then built a
little fish car that can somehow travel in whatever
direction a fish points to. Something about pulse
laser light, remote sensing technology and other
things I don’t understand make it possible. I just see
a fish driving a car and I’m amazed…at the
scientists.
So the next time you cast a line into Follensby or
Hoel or Lower Saranac, remember just how smart
fish are. I mean, we’ve taught them to drive! Just
like we’ve taught apes to understand and use
language. We’ve taught dogs to sniff out diseases.
Taught cats to, well…taught cats to…to take ALL of
the paper off a toilet paper roll! (Put the pens
down, cat people…I own two cats so I know they’re
very smart as well.)
I could go on and on about our relationship with
animals but I’m afraid I just don’t have the time…
I’ve got a flounder waiting to drive me to my dentist
appointment.
The other fascination here is our ability to teach and
therefore bend animal behavior. Long ago