Fish Locks

In Hamilton, Ontario there are "fish locks" built between the harbour, which is part of Lake Ontario, and Coots Paradise, a large shallow lake connected to the harbour by a man-made canal. As part of an effort to restore Coots Paradise to the lush wetlands it once was, each spring the fish returning from the Great Lakes to spawn there are trapped and run through narrow chutes to be sorted. Carp, like the one in the picture above, are tossed back to the harbour side. There's a sign at the locks explaining that carp, which can grow to more than 50 pounds, "graze like cows" on wetlands, devouring the reeds and other waterplants and devastating the natural environment. Pike, bass, and other native fish are allowed to pass into Coots Paradise to reproduce.

I took these pictures last May, just over a year ago. We had just returned to Canada from Alexandria, Virginia because of Wendy's troubles as an "illegal alien." I had left a great job and a great apartment and had no idea what I was returning to in Canada. I didn't have a job, so during the day I would go on long walks around Hamilton Harbour, wondering what the future would hold for Wendy and I. There was no way I could imagine the magnitude of change that was just around the corner. Without even knowing it, we had made it through the locks.