A translation by Judith Turcotte
Nature always surprises me. I recently read an article on the incredible capabilities of certain animals and insects. Among others, the carrier pigeons that return to their dovecote after flights of hundreds of kilometres and the monarch butterflies that leave Canada for Mexico, always to the same place to take refuge for the winter. Even more surprising, the butterflies returning to Mexico every year are not the same ones that had left in the spring to visit us. After having left Mexico, they make a stop in Texas to mate followed by a stop a little further north to mate again. The butterflies arriving in Canada are often the third generation. They return to Mexico in the Fall at the same place as their grandparents had done the previous year.
The migratory birds also display a sense of direction difficult to explain. That of the geese comes to mind: they make it their duty to warn us of their departure with their é-haouc sounds when they pass over our heads in V formation. What is happening below the surface of the St. Lawrence River does not escape my curiosity. A number of species of fish also migrate and the St. Lawrence River plays an important role in this migration. There are more than 200 species of freshwater and saltwater fish in the river.
Many of these fish spawn in freshwater and, in the first year, migrate to the sea where they grow and develop. The ability of these fish to return to their original habitat after years at sea is remarkable. In the St. Lawrence River, many species migrate including the yellow sturgeon, the pickerel, the tomcod, the yellow perch and the tasty shad.
The tasty shad is part of the herring family. It migrates from the Atlantic Ocean to freshwater between mid-May and mid-June. It is a lengthy migration of about 2000 km which stops in the Montréal region at the Carillon Dam in the Ottawa River and in Beauharnois. The tasty shad returns to its native river, the St. Lawrence, to reproduce after having spent more than four years in the ocean. No small feat. While these fish travel in the St. Lawrence River to join their spawning grounds, they are shit on by the municipalities that continue to discharge untreated sewage into the river. Despite this abuse, the tasty shad deserves its name. Its meat rich and sweet comes close to the quality of the salmon. Historically, the shad was one of the most exploited fish. Its numbers diminished at the beginning of the 20th century. In Québec, the shad is considered as an endangered and vulnerable species and an action plan to protect it has been implemented.
It is difficult to explain that man has found the means of reaching the moon, however, is incapable to explain how the migratory pigeons, the butterflies, the birds and the fish succeed in their exploits.