Ok, so in honor of Shark Week on Discovery Channel, I have challenged myself to write a shark story every day for seven days. Here is the first. Enjoy!
Algal Anomaly or, The Great White Snark
"There he is mommy," called out Kaylee. The little girl pulled on her mother's arm
with all her strength toward the hallway.
Nina, Kaylee's mother, was exhausted after a full day at the seaquarium
and wanted to get the main attraction over with already.
"Come on, mommy," Kaylee stopped pulling to give
her mom the annoyed and disappointed look that children give when their parent
does not show as much enthusiasm as they do about something. Nina tilted her head back and took a breath. Why did they have to be the winners of the
Discovery Channel contest? She couldn't
disappoint her daughter on her fifth birthday by not going to the exclusive
preview of the seaquarium's newest and greatest attraction.
The two continued down the underground corridor, following
the signs to the large safety-glass display for "Algal", the largest
great white shark ever caught. He weighed
5,000 pounds and measured 26-feet in length.
He had been caught by mistake by
a whaling vessel that was used to tag blue whales for biologic studies. The motherly instinct immediately kicked in
for Nina, as thoughts of the glass breaking and something happening to Kaylee
raced through her mind. Kaylee, however,
wanted to see and talk to Algal - to make a new friend. The mind of a five-year old is marvelous.
When the pair arrived at the large viewing theater, they were
shocked - but not because of the massive size of the animal, but because noticed
something strange about the large creature.
He was lethargic, and remained rather close to the bottom of the pool. He seemed sick.
"I'm so sorry for this," said a man as he entered
the viewing room. He was in his late fifties, looked a little
like Jimmy Buffet.
"What's wrong with Algal? I mean, I knew sharks were lazy but this is
ridiculous," asked Nina to the newly arrived man.
"We don't know.
He's only been in captivity for two weeks, but he hasn't eaten a
thing. We've thrown all sorts of things
in there: sea lions, seals, dolphins, big fish, even whale blubber, and
nothin'. Oh, I'm Cray," he said,
extending his hand.
Nina shook his hand and asked, "Do you think it may be
that he's depressed?"
"Nah, I think-"
"Maybe he's a vegetarian!" screamed Kaylee. Nina and Cray burst into laughter. Kaylee looked confused. She wondered why they found it so funny.
"Sweetie," said Cray, "sharks have to eat
other animals. It's the way of the
world! Youll understand some day."
Kaylee furled her brow.
"
Could he have a disease of some sort?" asked
Nina.
"He has a
disease. His breath smells," said
Kaylee, pointing at Cray. The man was
taken aback by the comment and placed his hand in front of his mouth to check
his breath.
"Kaylee Marie!
You apologize to the man right now."
Kaylee pulled her hand away from her mother, forced a frown
and mumbled something inaudible.
"Kaylee.
Apologize to the man right this minute or we're going home,"
repeated Nina. Still no response. "Ok.
One, two," she started the count that so many children fear, even
though most have never let the countdown get to one.
"I'm sorry Mr. Mean," said Kaylee, interrupting
the countdown. Nina rolled her eyes, but
was not in the mood to continue the fight.
She turned back to Cray.
"I'm sorry. So,
does he have a disease?"
"No. We checked
for everything we know, and he has a clean bill of health."
"Algie's a vegetarian, Algie's a vegetarian," sang
Kaylee in the way children taunt each other.
"Kaylee! Algal
is NOT a vegetarian!" screamed Nina. "Now stop with the stupid
nonsense!"
Everyone paused in awkward silence. Nina then squatted down to Kaylee's eye level.
"I... I'm so sorry.
Mommy didn't mean to scream like that."
"Look, Kaylee.
Maybe it's not so far-fetched," said Cray, looking at Nina. Adults can communicate very well without
words when they don't want a child to know what they're saying. Nina understood the look - it was to calm the
little girl down by trying out her theory so she could see that the shark would
not eat plants, and it would serve as a learning experience for Kaylee.
Cray disappeared the way he had come in, and Nina stayed
hugging Kaylee for a moment.
"Baby. The nice man is going
to get some plants to feed Algal.
Ok? Then we can see if you're
right or not. And if you're not right, that's
ok. We learned something, right?" Kaylee nodded.
The two sat down and watched in wonder as seaweed and
sponges slowly sank to the bottom, where Algal moped around like an inmate on
death row. Suddenly, Kaylee stood
up. "Look Mommy!" She pointed, but she didn't need to.
Nina's jaw almost hit the floor at what she saw before
her. The shark awoke and attacked the
sea plants like it was a seal in the Great Barrier Reef. It thrashed around, left to right, right to
left, sending ripped pieces of seaweed everywhere, muddying the water as the
plants were shredded down to smithereens.
It was a frenzy the like of which had never been seen before. More plants were dropped in, apparently by the
bucketful.
"I'll be," whispered Nina to herself. Kaylee was shrieking in excitement, running
to the glass and pressing up against it between twirls of joy. Nina had quickly forgotten her fear of the
glass breaking and her entire belief system had been thrown into a fire.
Cray rushed into the room and stopped at the entryway with
eyes wide. Nina met his stare with the
same look. Kaylee continued to dance
around, shrieking loudly, stomping her feet and clapping.
Months later, Algal, the Great Monster of the Sea was the
biggest spectacle in the history of the city.
The marine biologists studied the beast daily, in between shows, of
course. The shark displayed the same
behaviors as other great whites, only he did not eat meat. It was one of the most significant biological
discoveries in history. The biologists
watched in awe as Algal even breached the water with a surprise attack on
layers of algae on the surface of the water.
A stadium was built so people could watch Algal perform breaches the way
whaled and dolphins did.
Kaylee had made a friend, as she and Nina were granted
lifetime memberships to the seaquarium to visit the shark Kaylee had
saved. And in time, Kaylee would be
immortalized in two ways: the stadium was named after her, and so was the newly
discovered species of vegetarian shark - the Charcarodon Kayleerias!
