The fish that got locked in
A salmon that never reaches the sea. A cod that lives in fresh water. And Arctic char stuck in a meteorite hole since the glaciers left.
Can a fish live in both fresh and salt water?
And if it can no longer reach the sea?
Who locked them in?
Does it work the other way round?
Is there a sea fish that lives in fresh water?
Where are Quebec’s most trapped fish?
A question without one answer
Which is the deepest lake in Quebec?
We do not know for certain — and that is the interesting part. The Ministry of the Environment puts the maximum depth of Lake Pingualuk at 267 metres. Sépaq, for its part, describes Lake Walker, in the Port-Cartier–Sept-Îles wildlife reserve, as the deepest freshwater lake in Quebec — without giving a figure. Two public bodies, two answers, and neither cites the other.
This is not a slip on our part: it is the real state of the information. We could have picked the more impressive figure and said nothing. Checking who claims what, and noticing when two official sources disagree, is worth more than memorising “267”.
For the teacher
- The ouananiche and the Atlantic salmon are the same species. One goes to sea, one never can. Same animal, two lives — a clean way into what a species actually is.
- The crater is the story that stays: a meteorite 110 metres wide digs a hole thirty times its own size, water fills it, fish walk in during an ice age, the door closes behind them.
- End on the deepest-lake card. Two public bodies, two answers, neither citing the other. Ask the class what they would do to settle it — that question is the whole lesson.
- We could have picked the more impressive number and said nothing. We did not, and the page says so.