Unexpected Friend

I tied up another bag full of plastic shut, connected it to a buoy and sent it up to the surface. It’s what I am supposed to do, it’s what I volunteered to do in order to save the ocean I had grown to love as a child. It broke my heart that there was so much trash in this place, live coral having some pieces of plastic stuck to it while the fish just swam around it or curiously poked a piece of garbage before swimming off. I checked my oxygen to make sure levels were fine and then decided to continue. I had basic weights tied to my ankles to keep me on the ocean floor as I picked up the garbage there. A slow and tedious process, but one I was determined to make a difference with, even if it took me years to complete.

A call came in on my ear piece, warning me that some sharks would be gathering soon and I needed to come back to the boat in a few minutes. I confirmed but continued a bit longer, thinking back to a couple years ago when I first saw the sharks up close. Most don’t get close unless they are hungry and want the fish around you, but some do get curious and come up to prod at you before swimming away. That was what I experienced for the most part, but there was one small shark that stuck out to me. It was just a pup, that much I could tell, but it had gotten wrapped up in netting and it was digging into its skin. I felt bad for the pup and even though it took a while to get close to catch it, I was able to remove the plastic, though some marks were left on it and I had accidentally cut the top of my hand on it too. That made the sharks interested and I quickly got out of there.

I never saw that same shark these past few years I have come to do this. Did the pup die? Was it caught in more netting? Did shark fishermen get to it? I shook my head, I had gotten lost in thought again and noticed I had stopped moving. Though I felt the ocean move around me. Dang it, the sharks got here before I could get out of the way. I’m going to have to either wait until they leave the area or find a way to carefully move through them to get back to the boat. I decided to watch and wait a bit to see what the best course of action would be.

Suddenly, it seemed like most of the sharks around me had cleared out, which was confusing because they normally take a while to clear out. Something wasn’t right. I looked around to see what had spooked them and went white. There, far enough to see but getting closer, was a bull shark. They were known to be aggressive in this area and I was warned if I encountered one, I needed to get rid of the weights on my ankles and just make a swim for the boat, no matter what was around me. So, that was what I was going to do. Or what I was going to do until I noticed I couldn’t get the weights untied.

I frantically looked back and forth from my ankles to the shark getting closer to me, panicking over getting injured down here. I pulled and pushed as hard as I could to get them off but they wouldn’t budge. I got my knife out to cut them off but it was a tough material and it was a slow sawing of it. I did it as fast as possible, but I knew it wouldn’t matter soon, the shark would be on me and I’d have to be fighting to get away in any way I could. I braced for impact and shut my eyes, hoping that if it bit me, I could focus long enough to try to get back to the boat.

It was quiet, very quiet, and I thought I felt something touch me, but I didn’t feel pain. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times at what I was seeing. A bull shark was turning and leaving in another direction, while a huge great white was circling me. I was shocked more than scared at that moment, but more confused then anything. What just happened? Was this shark going to do something to me? How am I so close to this huge animal and not getting maimed? I turned my head slightly as I watched it continue to circle me, feeling it brush against me every now and then. Whenever it came in front of me, I would try to analyze all the features of it. One thing stood out to me. There, below one of it’s fins and halfway up it’s middle, was a very familiar faded scar pattern I had seen on one small pup.