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    My family spent some days in Campbell River, my birth place, and our friend, Tim Dorsay, arranged for my son Peter and I to go out in a small boat with a local. Our host realized that most of the other boats were chasing the salmon at an island out across the water, too  great a distance for his little boat.
    He decided to let Peter fish for cod etc at a drop off closer to shore, saying he’d move if nothing hit after thirty seconds. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but sure enough on his first jig Peter hooked into a reasonably sized rock cod. We played catch and release for the first few fish and then Peter hooked into something big. It took him awhile to bring the leviathan up but nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.
    “That’s a shark” I said as the fish swam slowly towards the surface in big lazy circles. “It’s a dogfish”, our guide said, “Probably an old one judging by his size.”
    We managed to unhook him and returned him to the deep. I’ve seen other dogfish but never one that big.

    Someone who lives in Campbell River is Sonny Assu. Sonny was a former student at North Delta Secondary and he went on to Kwantlen College and Emily Carr College of Art and Design. He now works independently as an artist and has/had work in the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of Anthropology, and various galleries around Vancouver and Montreal.   

     He was commissioned by Art Starts to produce a student interpretation with a First Nations design and he chose to work with students from North Delta. It was a great boost for my students to work with an established artist.

Sonny Assu website