Searching for Sharks

Even with nothing but a thin wetsuit, the warm waters of the Caribbean felt almost like bathwater on Jordan’s skin. Diving on the west coast, where Jordan had lived his entire life, was always fun in its own way. But there was something special about the beauty of the waters here off of the east coast of Honduras. Of course, perhaps it was just the natural high of being somewhere new-vacations like this were rare with a PhD workload and teaching assistant salary. Jordan slowly let air some air into his BCD (the inflatable jacket divers wear around that holds their tank and controls their buoyancy) and came to a hover fifty meters beneath the surface. He looked over to his right, where Meghan was almost slowing her descent. She looked at him and gave him the OK sign, the universal underwater symbol for being all good, and added an excited smile for good measure.

The two of them had been together for three years now. They were both graduate students in marine biology-he studied sharks, she coral reefs. She was smart, funny, adventurous, and ambitious. For their second date, she had taken him to her favorite dive spot in the area, and Jordan had been head over heels ever since. They laughed together through late evenings filled with data analysis, paper grading, and unhealthy amounts of caffeine, before escaping away to play in the ocean on the weekends.

He'd had been planning this vacation for almost six months. The resort they had picked was simple, but it was right next to a dive center. For the first two days, they’d explored the reefs. Jordan loved the way Meghan’s face lit up as the drifted through the coral colonies, weaving their way through the branches and columns or corals splayed out across the sea like an underwater rainbow. But today, she’d insisted they take a boat out to deeper waters, and look at something new. Today, they were searching for sharks.

The two of them slowly glided along the ocean floor, their eyes scanning in search of a predator. This particular location was quite popular with shark boats. That meant that if they saw a boat on the surface, there was a pretty good chance they’d find some sharks in the area. Of course, the boats were likely tossing fish guts into the water as well. So, they’d want to stay a little deeper and little further away. As a scientist, Jordan was well aware that sharks were unlikely to attack a human, but he was also smart enough not to swim haphazardly into the middle of a cloud of chum.

Jordan took his time swimming along. Even if they didn’t spot any sharks, he wanted to savor every part of the dive. They had moved away from some of the more popular reefs, but the seafloor was still littered with an array of intriguing inhabitants. A small school of blue tang moved slowly across the ocean bottom. The brightly colored parrotfish darted in and out of the rocky openings in a small trench. A sea cucumber sat peacefully atop a giant rock. Jordan heard a squeal, and saw Meghan dart ahead to get a better look at a blue-ringed octopus she’d spotted hiding in a cave. Jordan smiled to himself as he followed her. Despite being surrounded by the beauty of the ocean, he thought there was nothing more incredible than the woman swimming with him. Meghan didn’t know it, but he had a little surprise planned for their final dive.

Suddenly, Meghan pointed excitedly towards the surface. In the distance, Jordan spotted the silhouettes of two boats, large enough to hold several dozen tourists each. There was a light, reddish-pink color in the water around them, likely chum being tossed in the water by the guides. And around the boats, what looked like small shadows swam back and forth throughout the crimson murk. The two divers quickly turned and headed towards the commotion.

As they moved closer, Jordan was able to better distinguish the different sharks circling the boats. There were reef sharks, hammerheads, and even a few bull sharks. His heart quickened. For all the time he’d spent studying them in a lab, he’d rarely been able to actually be in the water with sharks. They’d seen some nurse sharks on the reefs, a smaller and more docile species. But seeing these majestic predators, so terrifying and yet so misunderstood, was such an intense, sublime experience that Jordan’s heart seemed to freeze in his chest.

As he paused to admire the sharks, Meghan swam past him and angled herself downwards, heading for the ocean floor. Jordan followed, and the two of them settled into a gentle rest on the rocks directly beneath the boats. Silently, they floated there, simply watching in awe at the magnificent creatures above them. This is absolutely perfect, Jordan thought.

He’d originally planned to do this in one of the reefs, surrounded by the corals and jellies that Meghan loved. His plan had been ruined when Meghan had insisted on looking for sharks today. But today was their last day of diving, his last chance, and there would likely never be a better moment. Jordan pulled a waterproof black box from the pocket of his BCD and opened it, revealing a small diamond ring. His heart was pounding in his chest. He was already kneeling, or as close to kneeling as you could be while trying to maintain a neutral buoyancy fifty meters underwater. He couldn’t speak, but Jordan had planned for this. He pulled out his dive slate from his BCD pocket and showed it to Meghan, with the message already written down: “I LOVE YOU. MARRY ME?”

Meghan’s eyes widened in shock, and then began welling up with tears beneath her, nodding her head yes. Jordan removed the dive glove from her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. Meghan wrapped her arms around Jordan’s head and placed the regulator in her mouth against his in a gentle, underwater kiss. Jordan rested his hands on his new fiancé’s hips, and exhaled all of his fears and nerves out into the ocean, the bubbles carrying them away to the surface. As they parted, Meghan reached into her BCD and pulled out her own dive slab. As Jordan looked, he realized there was a message already written on hers as well: “JORDAN LOVES AMY.”

This time, Jordan’s heart really did freeze in chest. How did she know about Amy? Amy, the brilliant, perky, excited undergraduate student who volunteered in the same lab. Amy, whose full lips, gentle hands, and hourglass body had entranced him in the evenings, when he told Meghan he was working late. Amy, who he’d stopped seeing two months ago when the guilt and shame had finally caught up with him, right before he decided to purchase the ring.

Jordan gasped, trying to take a breath, but he couldn’t get any air. Surprised, he quickly switched to his secondary air source, but it wasn’t working either. Startled, he reached out to Meghan to breathe from her air source, but she had moved away from him, and was refusing to pass him her secondary regulator. Jordan flailed, trying to trace his airline to find the problem. His hand reached around to his tank, where he realized what had happened: when she’d wrapped her arms around him, Meghan had reached behind him and turned off his air supply.

Jordan quickly began removing his SCUBA gear, trying to reach the knob to turn his air back on. As he slung the tank off his back, Meghan suddenly darted back in towards him. She was a former water polo player, and Jordan couldn’t match her speed and quickness in the water. She grabbed the tank and yanked it away from Jordan, tossing it out of his reach.

Jordan was in a full panic now. He was still fifty meters away from the surface with no air source. He quickly began swimming towards the surface, slowly exhaling as he rocketed towards the surface. There was no time to worry about decompression illness; if he didn’t reach the surface, he’d soon be out of oxygen. His vision was just beginning to go blurry on the edges of his eyes as he looked up, and realized: she had deliberately guided him directly under the boats, and now he was swimming straight into the feeding frenzy.

Jordan felt a small prick in his leg. Glancing down he saw that Meghan had come up from underneath him. Her green dive knife was lodged in his right thigh, his blood slowly trickling into the water. The happiness that had been masked on Meghan’s face was gone. Now, her face was a combination of fury, vindication, and tears. She turned quickly and swam away. Jordan, now near the point of blacking out, looked back to the surface. It was so close. Unfortunately, so was the bull shark that had noticed the scent of his blood, and he no longer had the strength to fight back. A woman scorned, thought Jordan in his final moments, was infinitely more dangerous than any shark.