Life in the public eye can be like living in a fish bowl.


That’s never more true than now.


Borrowing an innovative and highly unscientific tactic used by the Los Angeles Times to highlight water quality issues in its Los Angeles River, we plunked five goldfish in a tank of Androscoggin River water drawn near Auburn’s Festival Plaza and put them in front of a Web cam.


The Times named its two fish Little Antonio and Little Ed, after the L.A. mayor and a city councilman.


We’ve named our fish after each of the five candidates for governor, one of whom will have the power to keep cleaning it up, to effect change.


For too many people, it’s hard to make the river a tangible. It’s something we pass on the way to work, something we hear debated in Augusta. We’re hoping Little John, Little Pat, Little Barbara, Little Phillip and Little Chandler help bring the river and its issues home.


After a week in the tank they’re fine, mostly. (In the interest of full disclosure, Little Phillip I died within 36 hours, a fluke, we think. Little Phillip II is none the wiser.)


Each candidate for governor was told about the fish project. Responses ranged from “I feel silly asking, but you’re going to feed them, right?” (yes) to a suggestion we organize several tanks filled with water from different Maine rivers to test the fish against each other (interesting idea; maybe someone else wants to take that on).


During the weeks up to the election, we’ll post updates on the fishes’ activity and status. Check out sunjournal.com with photos that update every 30 seconds to see them for yourself.


The Times took some flack for its project; we expect that to happen too. If it generates discussion about the river from people who haven’t given it a wink before, it’ll be worth it.