Something's Fishy - #1

Refurbished Pier B at Ogden Point
Sept. 5, 12

Something's Fishy - #1

“What’s this?!” Freddie said to no one in particular. He allowed only his best friends called him to call him 'Freddie'.

An odd looking, but very dapper fish,  Frederique Poisson had been reading an interesting, but very troubling article, 

in the James Bay Beacon. Front page news informed readers that Pier B would be undergoing repairs. Major repairs.  

Frederique's scales, a lovely shade of purple, seemed to be all fins. His two large eyes rimmed in black made him look quite distinguished and intelligent.The purple scales with four large white dots marching down his belly, assured everyone that he was one of the more interesting, and refined, tenants living under Pier B. His golden fins, with spines of red, were wavy and tastefully ragged.  

When he got upset, as he was now, his flamboyant fins seemed to take on a life of their own sending him swimming around in his little condominium till he bumped into the wet rock wall knocking the soggy newspaper out of the grip of his side fins.  

Frederique had followed many stories in the little community paper, but this one was positively upsetting. His condominium was to be demolished! It was only a widened, but small, crack under Pier B, a cosy condo that he found quite by accident when he was being chased by one of the diving birds in the bay. Pier B, and therefore his condominium, was where those intrusive humans were going to begin their repairs. The words 'cement' and 'stainless steel' had been used and he knew both were intended for cracks - in other words, his home!

Taking in a great gush of water through his gills and letting out an equally great mass of bubbles, Frederique's swimming slowed, his wavy fins settling themselves into some sort of order, as he continued to read. The disturbing article also explained about the pressures on the piers at Ogden Point. The newspaper reported that newer technology on the massive cruise ships coming into harbour, in the form of ‘side thrusters,’ had shaken the pilings and the piers so badly that there was increasing erosion to the piers. No wonder there had been so many convenient cracks for him and his friends to live in. He had felt the shaking but just thought it was the earthquakes that the little paper insisted on reporting ad nauseum to it’s readers.

Having finally settled his fins, and given it some more thought, Frederique decided that he would be safest in another home. He did want to stay safely under Pier B; however he decided that a temporary move to Pier A would be much more prudent. Tucking his newspaper under the rock by the front entrance, his golden, red lined fins gently moving the water around his purple, and white 'buttoned' form, Freddie swam out to do some house hunting with his friends.

“I find the great thing in this world is, not so much 

where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Author's note: since 2012, Fredrique did in fact find a new condo but was not happy about the noise level. The wharfs had been expanded, more cruise ships have come in since then, buses rumbled across his new condo, the rolling wheels of suitcases and stomping of feet. He was so glad he didn't have feet! He flipped his beautiful fins and left for the day, still house hunting.

November 21, 2023

This is based on an actual event reported and published in a Victoria newspaper, The James Bay Beacon.