Justice for the sharks

“Come on, Lucy!” I hissed while I hid behind the rock. “Did you bring the camera?”

Lucy's pigtails bounced as she nodded excitedly. I frowned at her.

“You realize, dad will ground us for eternity if he finds out, right?”

Lucy's face instantly went white. I rolled my eyes at her. For the last eighteen months I had been trying to capture enough evidence to turn them in, and today was the day I was going to gather everything. As a high school kid, they assumed I was an annoyance when I reported it. Shark finning. I was disgusted when they captured one man who did it and only gave him a fine. Really, just a fine? I promise if he would have lost a limb he would have requested more than a fine to be paid. 

“How are we going to tail them?” Lucy asked.

“I have dad’s key” I grinned at her and she grabbed my forearm.

“As in the boat key?” She whispered.

I snickered and grabbed her hand and ran to the docks. My dad’s boat was his business and our income. He would use it every morning to take tourists into well-known areas to snorkel. During the summer I would help out and so did Lucy—my sister. I had seen him started and drive it and once he let me lead, so I was confident that this would be easy peasy. Lucy was not.

Thankfully, we were not the only boat in the water that morning. We followed the boat as unsuspiciously as we could. This was the first time I had been able to see the faces of the culprits, and the closer we got, the more nervous I got. Something was making my stomach churn, and somehow I knew what it was. I grabbed the camera and zoomed into their faces. My mouth dropped.

My boyfriend Jake and his best friends, Georgie and Ryan. I swallowed hard and for a second, just a split second, I doubted myself, but then I remembered. I remembered all the times I had been so close, but one way or another I had always been either late or in the wrong place. This time the only person I had told where I was going to be was Lucy. My fists curled, and the anger rose all the way to cheeks. Of course there wasn’t going to be a way for me to ever caught them red-handed. The idiocy I felt was indescribable. All of them had signed my petition to increase penalties against animal cruelty. Against shark fining! I knew the person who was committing these crimes was local. I just never expect them to be my friends. Before I could miss the opportunity, I clicked the camera. I must have taken at least 100 pictures and it sickened me not to be able to stop them. I handed Lucy the camera and her eyes widened the moment she saw the faces. 

“We have what we need,” I said and drove away.

“Is his son… Do you think he will do anything about it?” Lucy asked, and she was right. She was quite insightful for a 13-year-old. There was only one way to find out.

I entered the Sheriff’s office that afternoon.

“Adrianna, what can I do for you?” The sheriff asked. I sat down and handed him the camera. His reaction told me everything. He was collected and calmed. He knew. He knew what his son had been doing.

Do it — I texted Lucy.

“Who else knows?” He finally asked, and I waited to reply until Lucy texted me back a thumbs up.

“The whole world,” I smiled. 

She had posted the pictures to the Internet and tagged quite literally every organization against animal cruelty and shark fining.