A Short Story
By: Jay R. Calkins
(For the teacher to read to the class)
As we leave the dock at Sapelo Island, Georgia aboard our boat, my senses are filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of the salt marsh, which dominate the shoreward side of Georgia's barrier islands. Cordgrass, now green and waving in the hot summer wind, stretches as far as you can see, broken only by the tea-colored tidal creeks and rippling waters of Doboy Sound. Great blue herons squawk as our noisy passage disturbs them from their concentrated fishing rites. Fiddler crabs scurry into their muddy holes as the wake from the boat splashes along the mudflats.
I can see an old lighthouse, long abandoned, marking the southern end of Sapelo Island as we leave the sound and enter the Atlantic Ocean. To the north are the beaches and dunes, which protect the island from the constant wash of ocean waves. Shorebirds scamper among the waves in search of food.
The water changes from the color of tea to a blue-green as we leave the sound and travel east across the continental shelf. Flocks of sea gulls and terns follow our boat hoping to get an easy meal. The birds have learned that workers on fishing boats throw scraps of fish overboard after picking out the delicious white shrimp. Some of the birds follow us for miles out to sea.
We, the captain, crew, and I are going to visit Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary today. This sanctuary is about 17 miles ahead of us. Behind us, Sapelo Island is shrinking into the horizon as we travel to the east. Suddenly, appearing like magic, the boat is surrounded by six dolphins. The sleek mammals swim around the boat with ease. They pass the boat, swim beneath it and surf on our wake.
As my diving partner swims over a ledge slightly ahead of me, he suddenly stops and gestures wildly for me to look below him. There, resting on the bottom is a six-foot-long shark. The theme song from the movie "JAWS" echoes through my head as visions of some "man-eater" biting me fill me with dread. But this is a nurse shark, a large docile fish, which would not bother anyone.
I know very well that few sharks are dangerous to humans. Of the 300 species of sharks, only a dozen have been known to bite humans. Many of those attacks are thought to be the result of mistaken identity. For instance, great white sharks are thought to attack swimmers because they mistake them for seals or sea lions. Actually, sharks have much more to fear from us, as thousands of sharks are killed yearly for human food. Still, some primeval fear lingers from the sight of any shark.
We swim back up to the boat and take off our scuba tanks. I hope we get some good pictures. Slightly chilled and tired, I lie on the deck and let the sun warm me. I have just seen sights that very few people will ever see, except in photographs.
As we head back to shore, I notice a couple of fishing boats trailing lines in hopes of catching some of the fish drawn to Gray's Reef. Somebody might be eating mackerel, or sea bass or snapper tonight.
This must be my lucky day as someone shouts "Whales off the starboard bow! Three of them! Big ones!" Sure enough I spot a spout of water and spray shooting into the air from a huge dark shape off to the right about 100 yards ahead. "Those are right whales," cries the captain. "They're larger than our boat so they must be 50 feet long!"
Taking care not to scare these wonderful mammals, we stand off and watch the whales from a distance. "How can one of the largest animals that ever lived be so graceful? " I wondered aloud.
I think back of the stories I've read about hunting whales and wonder how such a magnificent animal could be nearly extinct from such puny beings as ourselves. I take some comfort in knowing that these whales are now protected from whalers' harpoons.
We leave whales and other animals behind and once again approach Sapelo Island which now casts long shadows on the water from the setting sun. What a day! I hope our pictures are good enough to help us share our trip with others. We need to let everyone know why the ocean and Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary are so important to protect and conserve.
