A Fishy Story

Hawaii State Capitol

About a year ago, the reflecting pond surrounding Hawaii’s state capitol building in downtown Honolulu suddenly was repopulated with fish after being devoid of aquatic life for about a decade.

The funny thing is, the people in charge had no idea how they got there. In a figurative blink of an eye, schools of tilapia were scooting around the pond, merry as can be.

Tilapia, as you may know, are the fish made famous in the Bible. You know, the story where Jesus fed the multitudes with just a few of the finny fellows? Yep, that fish.

Anyway, fish were not supposed to be put in the ponds because, although the fish eat algae, they process the algae internally, and that produces fishy poop, and THAT is algae fertilizer. The result? A kind of perpetual, self-sustaining cycle of algae-poop-algae-poop.

As far as I know, the fish are still there … reproducing … and pooping.