Daily Archives: February 2, 2010

The Unusual Suspect

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Today the ocean is so calm that we can take out the dinghy. We stand guard for a few hours, packed with life-vests, waterproof bags, binoculars, VHF (Very High Frequency) radios, fishing nets and diving gear until we see a windrow of sargassum. Lam, Joel, Mike and me jump in the boat and plunder one patch after the other like bees hunting for nectar. Joel dives into the water with a wetsuit to catch plastic from below, I’m using the nets, Lam is operating the boat and Mike is filming the whole thing. Again we fill up a bag in no time. Most of the plastic is partly eaten with visible bitemarks all over. From some plastic bottles only the handle is left. Who is eating this shit?

Just when the Sea Dragon calls in to say we are getting out of sight  we hear a scary and alarming deflation sound, like a shark just took a bite of the air filled dinghy. Joel is hanging on the boat, but still in the water and all four of us look at each other for about three seconds in which we know that this is it. Than we notice the water in the boat which made Joels life-vest go off. A sincere long deep sigh is synchronicaly unleached. Youth memories are stored again for another occasion.

Back on the Sea Dragon we make a stunning discovery: a fish is caught in one of the plastic containers and it’s teeth seem to fit the bitemarks on the plastic debris. Is this the suspect we are looking for?