Yes Anne-Marie, there is a future for the “Littles.”
Anne-Marie, of Tucson, Ariz., and her office were dedicated virtual goldfish groupies of the Sun Journal’s 2006 election project, in which five goldfish named for Maine’s five gubernatorial candidates – the “Littles” – were plunked into a tank filled with fresh water taken from the Androscoggin River.
We aimed to draw attention among the candidates toward cleaning the Androscoggin, a goal we believe we achieved. Four of the five candidates came face-to-face with their aquatic namesake; two became so attached that they called during the race just to check on them. One even asked to adopt them.
Along the way, the “Littles” became legitimate Internet celebrities, with write-ups in the Los Angeles Times and the Columbia Journalism Review online, and engaged the blogosphere with debates about proper aquarium management and semi-celestial musings on where goldfish go when they die.
The kind words upon the passings of Little Phillip I and II were also well-received. Fans of the “Littles” take heart: the Phillips did not die in vain. Cleaning the Androscoggin is of utmost importance, and the Phillips should be considered martyrs for the river’s environmental health.
Yet, with all our pride from this project, we must own up its faults. Nothing about this “experiment” was scientific, and therein lay its greatest flaw. Nick Bennett, a marine scientist with the National Resources Council of Maine, said choosing the hardy goldfish to survive the Androscoggin was a poor decision.
“They can live in anything,” Bennett said. “(They) can live in industrial waste.” He, and others, suggested a more accurate experiment would have used other species, such as brook trout, as more emblematic of Androscoggin aqua-environment.
Goldfish are also members of the carp family, and therefore deemed an invasive species for Maine’s waters. (The situation that snagged a restaurant owner in Freeport recently over his koi.) Bennett also feared the project would suggest that putting goldfish in the river is a good idea, when it’s not. Fair enough.
Others also agreed. Physician Greg D’Augustine said that the science of the project was questionable. Yet as chairman of the Androscoggin River Alliance, D’Augustine felt the goldfish grabbed people’s attention. “It focused people on an issue that gets lost in the shuffle,” he said.
Which was precisely our intention.
Our enthusiasm for improving the Androscoggin hasn’t reached its watershed with this project’s conclusion, not by a long shot. As the “Littles” coast into retirement as pets, instead of icons, we urge environmental advocates, officials and communities to continue efforts for a healthy river.
Since the shake-up at the top of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, our confidence in the Baldacci administration’s commitment to the Androscoggin has improved. The agency’s new leader, David Littell, has already earned our trust by enacting strict new requirements on paper mill discharges.
And how can we not like the guy? After all, just like our goldfish, he’s a “Littell” too.
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