This morning our across-the-street neighbor came over and told us that the fish farm over at the local university was having their annual open house. So Eric and I piled into the van and drove on over to check it out. Sure enough, the FWC’s FAU Fish Research Center (which normally keeps a very low profile: go ahead, I dare you to find mention of it on the web somewhere–please send it to me if/when you do!) had a big sign out, the gate was open, and the parking lot was full. They had tanks set up inside with fish from around the world that have been found in Florida’s inland waterways: piranha from the Amazon, cichlids from Africa, Asia and South America, and much more. Apparently they’ve just hired someone on to do research on exotic herps in South Florida as well, so they had a Burmese Python hanging out in a tank as well.
But the real action was out back of the office, at the kid’s fishin’ hole. There were dozens of families with wee ones around one of the containment ponds, putting cut-up hot dogs on fish hooks and casting, with varied success. Some kids were able to cast for themselves, and they generally caught very little. Others, like Eric, were too little to cast independently, so they got help from the staff. Eric caught two catfish in two tries in about two minutes this way:
Our helper, by the name of David, had one of the most southern accents I’d ever heard. Being polite, or maybe just shy, I said nothing about it, but wondered where he might be from. So naturally, when we fell to talking, he exhibited no such shyness, asking me right out where I came from, because he noticed I had a bit of an ak-sayent… Go figure. That’s David in the picture below, along with Eric and the catfish.
It turned out our next-door neighbor had gotten the heads-up from our other neighbor as well, and she was there with her two boys, bored but happy at the same time in the pre-summer heat. One of the toddler girls over in the corner fell in, to much consternation. But a good time was had by most, and we made it home in plenty of time for lunch (not catfish, in case you were wondering–this was a catch-and-release event). As you can see, Eric was a bit puzzled at the idea of catching a fish only to let it go; he didn’t really know what to think:
Maybe when he’s a little older…