Dozing polar bear, Indianapolis Zoo

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Who's been purgin' the sturgeon?*

I really don't know what to make of this. East of Portland about 45 minutes lies the Bonneville dam, which hosts on its grounds a trout hatchery and a pond which held seven endangered white sturgeon. Till Monday morning anyway, when an employee found the pond empty.

Sturgeon aren't little. I've been to Bonneville a few times, and those fish were big -- the news article says about five feet long, and that's about right. Here's a great image of them.

I guess I'd like to know how you can remove seven ginormous fish from a pond on a federal site without being noticed. This is a dam, people -- security once searched my trunk when I was taking my son to feed the trout at the hatchery. (Though I'm pretty sure that was because of the profusion of anti-W bumper stickers on my car.)

People suck.


*The single positive aspect of this event is that it allowed me to use this phrase in a socially acceptable manner.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hhhhh?

Anti W Bumper Stickers? Don't you LOVE your country? Just kidding. But this was the stupid thing people threw at me if I dared to talk about Mr. Bushy. I think it has always been more American than apple pie to talk about your president. Certainly was open season with Clinton. Guess it just depends on who runs the media

I SO want to go to Oregon. Do you have pictures of the coast? That may be my next trip. My future Sister n law and I were going to start off in California to see the redwoods, rent a car and just drive up the coast. If you have costal photos or photos of those cute little fisherman towns I would greatly appreciate it!


Toots.

P.S. I've always loved the bumper sticker "I support magnetic bumper stickers" Can’t get in trouble for that ;-)

Trailhead said...

Ha, that bumper sticker's pretty funny.

You can find some of my Oregon photos here. There are a few of the coast in there. It's a great place, for sure. My advice is to aim your trip for July or August. The weather has cleared then and things are visible. We've entered The Gloomy Time for the next several months, unfortunately.

Trailhead said...

But then again, if you're going to start at the Redwoods, you might want to start in mid to late May, when the rhododendrons are blossoming there -- it's supposed to be spectacular. The weather here would still be dicey at that point, but it's possible it could be fine. Eastern Oregon would probably be clear at that point too.

Anonymous said...

Well I was in California in May I believe. San Fran. I was glad I brought my coat! I saw tourist in shorts just FREEZING! They had to buy jackets there that said "San Fransisco" I was walking arount like "Ahhhh" in my coat. So I know it may be cold But I was thinking April after my Tax Returns. Love your photos.

This is what made me want to go to Oregon. I would have just pasted the link but it's super long and I was afraid it would not come out but this site.

http://208.56.96.178/cgi-bin/photo/imageSearch.cgi?img=0&search=Coast+Newport+Oregon

Then on your left hand side look at Geddis Color Photography and I believe it is on PG 11 this HUGE wave crashing against a rock! I saw this photo in a Readers Digest book and said, from just that photo, I'm going to Oregon. I've never looked at a picture that made a noise but I swear this one does! I heard that wave crashing against that rock! I want to see that wave!

Can you recommend any Cutsy little Hotels, Fish Places, Towns to see? Or Will I just hit what I want to hit by driving along the ocean? I LOVE fish. Had the best Chioppino in San Fran.

Toots

Anonymous said...

Here maybe this would just work

http://208.56.96.178/cgi-bin/photo/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=All_Catagories&image=Geddis%20WJG%20Breaker%20Shore%20Acres%20G3983%20Oregon%20Pacific%20Coast%20USA%20photographs%20wsl%20color%20horizontals%20lavendar.jpg&img=150&search=Geddis%20color&cat=all&tt=¤tOrder=

A Lewis said...

Somethin's fishy around here.....or, maybe NOT fishy, for that matter. What would anyone want with them? Are they worth $$$?

kris said...

That is a head-scratcher. Like how, why, say what??

Trailhead said...

Toots, the sea stack in those shots is Haystack Rock, which is on Cannon Beach, about an hour and a half from Portland.

There are plenty of hotels, but I swear its funny you should ask about food. My husband and I were just talking about this last week -- we've never had a really excellent meal on the Coast. It's so odd I was going to write a post about it, until I realized that its uh, kind of a privileged problem to have. Oh poor me. I've never had really fine dining on the coast. Boo hoo.

There are certainly some old standbys -- Moe's is the cliche, where you get clam chowder and pretty much any fried crap you can eat. I like the Lumberyard in Cannon Beach, mostly because they have free range chicken.

If anyone else can interject with recommendations, you'll be doing both of us a favor, I think.

Anonymous said...

Hi Trailhead,

Had no good fish on the coast? Oh I forgot I spelt Cioppino wrong. It's pronounces Ch. Good stuff. I do love fish though. Not fried. Trying to stay away from Fried. Had the BEST cajun food in New Orleans but that was 10 year ago. I wonder how long of a drive it would be from San Fran to Portland. Anyone? Anyone? Of course I would have to stop at hotels along the way. I heard redwoods are 5 hours from San Fran. Other than that one big expensive meal I had, mostly I went to Safeway and bought goodies. I had a fridge and a Microwave in my room.


I still don't understand Lewis' posts about Fish. I wouldn't eat endangered fish. Unless they were tasty! Just kidding.I quit eating red meat but I do remember the days of tasty bloody moo-ing burgers MMMM! But I have been healthier since I stopped red meat. Meats just not safe these days with all the growth hormones n such. I do eat chicky chicky sometimes but that's unhealthy too. Plus I try to buy organic so the little peckers can have a life before the axe. But it's just so much$$$ I do buy free range chicken eggs when I buy eggs.

I think keeping snakes is cruel. not that I like snakes but they keep this big long thing in a little tank and all the snake does is press his head along the top of the tank wanting out. What kind of life is that? I also don't think they should sell ferrets. People think. "Oh I can get one for my kid, keep it in a cage for him to look at." Ferrets, like cats have busy minds. You can't keep that in a cage it would be like spending your life in the bathroom I think there should be special education for people wanting pets for their kids. A lot of times kids aren’t shown the proper way to handle an animal and they are mistreated. People sometimes treat animals like they would treat a handbag.


Toots.

Anonymous said...

Oh Cioppino by the way is Fish Stew. Nothing endangered goes in there. Fisherman wives use to make it at the end of the week with all the left over fish pieces. I guess you can put whatever you want in it but the one I had had clams, crab legs, and other bits of fish like salmon, some kind of whiter fish and these itsy bitsy potatoes in like a tomato broth. kind of like the broth that is in Minestrone. I use to work at this restaurant that added rice to it. That's not the correct way. When I asked the waiter if I could have rice he reminded me of this. I said "I know it's not the correct way, I was kind of hoping you made it the wrong way."

-Toots-