Q: How long does it take you to get dressed?
A: Just like most folks, one leg at a time. The hardest part is getting my pants on over my tail fin. With a little flip of my pectoral fins, my shirt is on and I spend a few minutes getting my tie just right so I look my best for my fans.
Q: Where did you get your hat?
A: There is an old Dungeness crab milliner who operates out of the kelp beds near Galiano Island. Any discerning salmon knows this is the only place to get the best hats.
Q: What Fraser River tributary are you from?
A: I spawned in the Upper Fraser near the Nechako Valley, and spent my first year exploring many parts of the watershed as I traveled south to begin my journey out to the Pacific Ocean for a few years, so I could grow big and strong.
Q: What was it like growing up as a juvenile salmon?
A: I had a lot of fun hanging out all over the Lower Fraser with my fry buddies, but my favourite place ended up being around Steveston. I didn’t like schooling so much, but it was important to learn about the tides and study the dangers of the open ocean and practice navigation and other lessons to help me live a long and healthy life.
Q: What’s your favourite thing to do in Steveston Park?
A: I love meeting all the kids and their families, and see the smiling happy faces of people celebrating Canada Day. I also like to cool off in the waterpark when no-one is looking!
Q: During the parade, do you shake my hand or do I slap your fin?
A: Fin slaps and high fives are easier for me.
Q: What is a typical day like, swimming around Steveston Harbour?
A: After I wake up at dawn I like to go for a swim around Shady Island, then enjoy a breakfast of krill and zooplankton. I usually spend my day exploring the shorelines between Steveston and Hope, darting in and out of the boats and ships working the river. Sometimes I’ll visit with my sturgeon friends, some of whom are hundreds of years old and remember the days when our human friends were mostly indigenous peoples. I love to hear their stories from a time when there were only canoes on the waters.
Q: What can Stevestonites and visitors to your home do to ensure you and your friends stay healthy and happy?
A: The best thing for me and my friends is clean, unpolluted waters. There are lots of things already being done by a lot of caring people to ensure that our watersheds are protected, but it is important our human friends remain diligent. Never dump garbage into the rivers and streams, and if you see a little yellow fish painted on the roads beside culverts and drainage grates, that means anything that washes down there ends up in the river or ocean so don’t dump anything that could hurt us such as cigarette butts, pesticides, oil, paint, solvents or anything other than rain water!
I love to see shoreline cleanup days because that helps a lot, but at the same time I feel sad to still see so much garbage being dumped in my living room.
