September 2017
Monthly Archive
TINY DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC
Posted by karlmeyer on 26 Sep 2017 | Tagged as: American shad, Turners Falls power canal
NOTE:The following bit of verse was presented at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in public recognition of the annual fish kill that takes place on the Connecticut River in the Turners Falls Power Canal, literally in the back yard of the USGS Silvio O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center. The fish kill is a combination of federal trust and resident fish species, and is not monitored, nor has any organization stepped forward to litigate this “taking” of a public resource.
* CLICK; then CLICK again on photo to enlarge.
Copyright © 2017 by Karl Meyer, All Rights Reserved
TINY DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC
Fun, prizes, social interaction, good citizenship
All to be had for two hours work picking trash
On the banks of a river
Pizza, parties, tee-shirts, free beer
A green-washed star for your corporate-dollars in sponsorship
The feel-good morning of your river-loving year
Facebook, newsprint, TV, a tally told in tons of trash
Yet all that week, muck-battered pan fish lay dead in the river’s wake
Right under everyone’s nose
The corporation had torpedoed the river yet again
Sunk it, in the mud of a hidden canal
Diverted, drained, de-oxygenated
To a desiccated hulk
Scores of pickerel begged for water, expired
Pumpkinseed pulsed their gills, but siphoned only mud
Thousands of sea lamprey twisted, belly-up, in hardening sand
Geese honked in nervous confusion
As frantic baby shad made a baitfish dash through puddles leading nowhere
Me and a great blue heron surveyed the scene
Puzzling over a river’s life that would never find the sea
Then, I abandoned the bird to that sink full of dirty dishes
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Fish kill photos, Turners Falls Power Canal, 9/18/17
Posted by karlmeyer on 19 Sep 2017 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
A tiny sampling of the thousands of struggling young fish and freshwater clams killed annually in the draining of the Turners Falls Power Canal. Sea lamprey, suckers, shad, bass, pickerel, pumpkinseed, etc. Photos taken on the morning of September 18, 2017, as the water was still draining. As the water draws down completely, the fish struggle and become sand covered, rendering them largely invisible in the muddy habitat.
NOTE: Click on images, then click again to ENLARGE.
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