Salmon

Had a latte from Starbizucks today, and almost forgot to check the daily affirmation on the cup.

Whew!

Today's affirmation:

Wild salmon are the canaries in the
coal mines of our own world.

-- Bill Taylor
President and CEO of the Atlantic Salmon Federation

Um.... Huh?

Bill is either infinitely smarter than most people, or he's really clumsy with metaphors. Trying to extract the true meaning of this message is giving me a headache. I'm going to try to dissect it, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get anything.

Canaries were used in coalmines a long time ago. The miners would put them in cages, and take them down into the mineshaft. If a poisonous gas was present there, the canary would die, hopefully before miners did. Observant miners would notice that the canary was dead, and know that it was time to get out of the mine.

The connection between salmon and canaries, and coalmines and "our own world" is obvious. Thus, the meaning is:

If you carry a salmon around in a cage and it dies,
don't waste time: Get off the planet as soon as possible.

Thanks Bill, that's really helpful.

Come to think of it, what is an "Atlantic Salmon Federation" anyway? Those words give me a mental image of thousands of uniformed salmon marching across the US from the east coast.