Reach out

One of the best parts of taking on this blog has been, I must admit, the contact I am able to receive from people who can, through this medium, reach out to talk to a fish.

So far I have had the postcards which have been featured on this blog and last week I received this email from a young lady named Tilly: 

Hello Augustus and everyone else!

My name is Tilly and I am 9.
I love geology and palaeontology and that is how I got here.
My great grandpa kindly signed me up and I am loving your newsletter!
In the next newsletter, can you show us around the museum with a few images?
Lots of love,
Tilly️

To which I replied;

Dear Tilly,
Thank you very much for taking the time to email me, I am highly flattered!
It is praise-worthy indeed that a young person like you is interested in things like geology and palaeontology. I myself am also highly interested in learning more about the science of things that I see around me. Never stop learning Tilly and never stop being interested in things around you, for that is how wonderful things are discovered!
I am extremely glad you are enjoying the newsletter, thank you for your excellent suggestion about a tour of the Museum in pictures. I will personally make sure that it is put in the next newsletter, so keep your eye out for that!
Have you been to the Museum yourself? I think you would enjoy it. Unfortunately I have not been able to make the trip up there to see the fossils of my ancestors but I am hoping to soon.
All the best Tilly, and don't forget to continue to enjoy learning all the incredible things there are to learn!
Augustus The Fish

Like I said, emails and postcards are the best part of having this blog and I really appreciate those who have been brave enough to reach across the gap separating humans and fish. 

However I must note that the adults of the human species have been holding back from this kind of contact, and this makes me very annoyed. This is one of the most important things that has been done between humans and fish and it is being neglected. 

I don't know how many people out there read this blog, but I would like to urge all to reach out and contact me, the representative for all fish to humans. I am sure that all of you have interesting insights that you could share if you were brave enough. 

Therefore if you have any comments or questions at all, humorous, serious, curious, controversial, or otherwise, please, drop me a line at;

Augustus
PO Box 360
c/o Age of Fishes Museum
Canowindra NSW 2804

OR email at;

age.of.fishes@gmail.com

Now is the time!

I really look forward hearing from you all, I know we will have some interesting conversations. Thank you again to Tilly and the others who have taken time to contact me!

~ Sincerely Augustus The Fish.

Interviewing Augustus

Last week I had the stupendous honor of being interviewed by Warren Keedle, Manager of the Age of Fishes Museum, for this blog. You can read this interview, transcribed by Zoe Urquhart, below:

Warren: Thank you for letting me come down to your river for this interview.

Augustus: I’m sure it will be interesting.

Warren: My first question is who else lives in this part of the river?

Augustus: I have many friends and acquaintances with the river. Nearby me live Dan and Nelly the platypuses and their family. They live just up the river from the swinging bridge; the names of their numerous offspring are Perry, Noah, Lindsay, Robert, Spencer, Billy, Harry, Bobby, Sono, Boots, Nelly, Penny and Chuck. I find them to be friendly agreeable animals.

Of course there are other fish, such as myself. One of my closest relatives is Cecily; she is my cousin and lives quite near me in the river. I find her to be somewhat frivolous and overly cheerful.

There are also a family of Carp who live nearby, by the name of Beringer. They are a quiet family, but not unintelligent. I have frequently had many stimulating conversations with Hastings Beringer, the father. They are of course descendants of the immigrant carp who came here many years ago, and have retained much of their fascinating history. Hastings tells me that he often feels that he would like to return to the homeland for a visit but he and his family agree that they would not like to leave their lovely home in The River.

Warren: We look forward to getting to know all of them too. Now not trying to be rude but how do you hold things with your fins?

Augustus: I'm not trying to be rude either, but only a human would arrogantly assume that you need hands to be efficient.

Warren: Fair point. So how do fish communicate through the generations to pass down knowledge and history?

Augustus: It’s mostly an oral history. Stories of long past decades filter down throughout families, many of the same stories are told somewhat differently depending on which family you are in. In this respect it is similar to human history, changing depending on who is telling it.

Warren: Are there fish artists?

Augustus: Fish have learnt to appreciate beauty in everyday, without having to record it. Occasionally we sketch in the sand at the bottom of the river, perhaps to illustrate a point in a story or just for amusement, but of course it washes away very quickly leaving only a memory. In a way the transient nature of our art is a reflection of how transient our lives are in this river.

Warren: Are you superstitious?

Augustus: Not in the least.

Warren: How far have you traveled in your lifetime?

Augustus: As far up stream as I can, before I reach that natural wall like object and then back. I have never really had a desire to travel any further, or perhaps it is because I have accepted that I cannot.

Warren: Natural wall like object , you mean the dam?

Augustus: Dam? Dam did you say? You mean to tell me that there is a dam in my river!?

Warren: Yes, I believe it would have been built before you were born.

Augustus: That’s no excuse! Well for goodness sake, so you humans are again the reason for hopes and dreams being crushed. Never being able to explore my natural habit because of a dam!

Warren: Well I really had nothing to do with it, but perhaps one day the museum can find a way for you to travel further upstream and find out what’s beyond that wall.

Augustus: Well perhaps. It is very kind of you to offer.

Warren: So the next question. Have you ever had other close encounters with humans?

Augustus: Naturally I have seen humans many times down near The River, I have actually evaded capture by humans bent on fishing many times by my sharp wit and natural instincts. However the most frightening experience I ever had was once when I was quite young my older brother Marcus was taken by a human who was fishing.

Warren: I’m very sorry to hear that.

Augustus: Thank you.

Warren: If you could give one message to the humans around your area what would it be?

Augustus: First of all I would like to express that I have been surprised by the amount of good will shown to fish by humans through the Age of Fishes Museum and this blog. Also I would like to thank the humans around my river for not polluting it overly with much rubbish. I suppose there will always be some humans who pollute. The dam wall seems to be one instance of this, which you so kindly pointed out. 

However although humans seem to fairly good in this respect I would wish, more than anything for humans and fish to be able to live peacefully together without one killing the other.

Warren: Great message. If you could give one message to all humans worldwide what would it be?

Augustus: I think that although not happening in my area, a lot of the atrocities being carried out against fish by humans such as the mass genocide happening on a regular basis in most oceans, must stop. I cannot expect that humans will give up killing fish altogether, such a thing is too deeply entrenched in human history, but that would be a wonderful achievement. However that is too much to expect, so I would just like to ask for a better feeling between fish and humans

Warren: Finally what’s the next big thing you hope to achieve in life?

Augustus: Like I mentioned before, life in the river is very transient. Therefore most fish will not have huge goals and plans in life. I think the biggest thing I have ever tried to do is this blog as it is a way for fish to reach out to humans and get our message across.

So I hope my answers were illuminating. Thank you Warren for your support of this project. 

Keep watching here for more fascinating articles and posts!

Swimming with an Ancient Fish.

As I was thinking about what to say about your latest project in my river, I was finding it very hard to know what to say, which is a very odd circumstance for me.

I admit that I have always been rather intelligent; however I never pretended to be very interested in humans’ doings and know very little about them. If, on the other fin, you wanted to know anything at all about my river or my opinions on anything else I would have ample supply of them!

But as only a mere, lowly fish I find it hard to understand what you mean by ‘3D animated image’ and ‘will be projected into the Belubula River’ and harder still to be called on to comment on. But never let it be said that Augustus has ever been at a complete loss for something to say!

I will address the general idea of it, which sounds fascinating. As you told me;

“The long extinct Devonian fish will once again swim in the local river.”

Ever since I was a young fishling (none of this fry business, which I find extremely poor taste.) I have wished that I could talk to fish from past generations. To compare notes, as you say. You see fish have always passed on certain traditions to our young, even fish like me who don’t live in schools. So I would love to know how close our traditions today are to the fishes of ancient times.

Now I am told that this long cherished dream will become reality! This fish from long, long ago will be swimming again in his river, my river. I guess you humans are good for some things after all. (And very bad for others, but let’s not go into that yet.)

I am awaiting the event with great expectations. Some questions I have in mind are:

• Has the river changed much since your time?
•  Have we always lived here or did some of our ancestors come from a different place?
•  Do you remember the start of the tradition of meeting every fourth Monday night for a family gathering? Why did we start doing that? (Silly idea if you ask me, we’re  splashing into each other all the time anyway.)
• What was your favourite food? Are the myths true about a certain kind of delicious insect that used to be here in the thousands, long since extinct?

Those will do for a start, although I suppose once we start talking we’ll never stop! Yellow Bellies are known for having lots to say. At least, my branch of the family is.

So you may not see me at the river next Monday night (I like to keep a low profile around humans) but I’ll be there, watching him swim the river once again and having a little chat.

By the way, I noticed that it is possible for all my readers to add their comments to mine below this, so if any of you (humans or fish) can think of any further questions for me to ask my ancestor on Monday, I beg you to let me know below and I will give them my consideration!

A Strange Invitation.

I was having a nice snooze in the current when I heard about this; I was abruptly awakened by a noisy magpie squawking about something.

Magpies aren’t often known to eat fish so I stuck my head out of the water to see what he was fussing about, since I couldn’t sleep anyway with that inconsiderate racket.

“The humans at the fish museum want a fish to write a blog post for them to put on the internet!” squawked the magpie as soon as I surfaced, jumping around on one leg.

I eyed him bemusedly.

“A… what?” I asked. My unusually high intellect wasn’t working quite as well as usual, just having woken up so rudely and all.

“A blog post! You know, writing about a topic on the internet!”

“Riiight. And are these weird shenanigans any reason to wake me up from a most enjoyable rest?”

“I haven’t any idea what you just said but I need to find a fish to write about science week for the humans!” said the magpie flapping its wings impatiently. “Hey! You’re a fish, (bright creature) you can do it!”

“I? I want no dealings with humans, bloodthirsty creatures!” (No offence).

“Come on!” Said the magpie, eyeing off a bug passing by, “you talk good; I bet you’d have lots to say! Besides I haven’t got all day.” He pounced on the bug and snapped it down. Disgusting.

Although he did have a point, I am a fish with lots to say. I must admit I have not always admired humans. Most fish are terrified of humans. I myself have always been slightly nervous of them. Ordinarily the only time a human wants to see a fish is at lunch time. Clearly something must be done. Someone must speak out.

So with this in mind I accepted your offer to discuss various things with you on your ‘blog’. To give fish everywhere a voice.

Allow me to introduce myself; I am Augustus.