Roberta Brooks

Goes deep to serve dinner

Every other week for 12 years, volunteer Roberta Brooks has donned her scuba gear and jumped into 50-degree water in the Seattle Aquarium's dome tank to swim with sturgeon, hand feed halibut and dispense frozen restaurant-quality krill, squid and herring.

Q: Are you pals with any particular fish?

A: I've always been very partial to the wolf eels because they're diver friendly, the puppy dogs of the sea. For years, we had a male in here nicknamed Charlie. Charlie and I were good friends. He always came out to see me. These guys haven't been in the tank that long, so we haven't quite bonded. I don't care what anybody says, fish have personalities.

Q: Tell me about the others.

A: Most divers give the ling cod a bit of space. During the mating season in January, the female will lay eggs and the male will guard them. Ling cod have very large teeth, and they'll defend those eggs at all costs. They can be intimidating when they open their mouths and flare their gills. They've been known to sink their teeth into a diver. The salmon are the Chihuahuas of the tank. They're hyperactive and they're a strike feeder, so they move quickly. The most dangerous thing in the tank is a 7-pound salmon doing 15 miles an hour, headed toward the food. You have to learn to put the food away from your head so you don't get smacked.

Q: Since fish are your friends, how do you feel about eating them?

A: Even though I swim with them, I still eat them. At first it was a little odd, but I was born in the Midwest, raised on the farm, and it's not like I don't eat hamburger. I've never been a fan of raw fish. A nice alder-smoked salmon, terrific. Sushi, no.

Q: What's it like to dive in the tank?

A: You're out here floating. It's very serene, very quiet, except for the bubbling. Cell phones and pagers don't work under water, so you're just interacting with the fish and the public. It's funny to see the kids' reactions. Sometimes they're scared, sometimes they blow kisses.

Q: If you were a fish, what kind would you be?

A: A six-gill shark. They're sleek, gorgeous, perfectly built for swimming, found in almost every ocean in the world — and I wouldn't be eaten by a harbor seal.