After a while, the shark turned around and swam downriver back to the sea. Hae and the other surfers swam ashore and walked a long, winding path up the cliffs to a platform near the crowd where the winning ceremony was held. Ashton and Ashley’s parents went to their children.
With her hands on her hips and a frown covering a latent smile, Mrs. Smith stood in front of her daughter. “How are you walking around, young lady? Your bikini top has been gobbled up by a shark, and your bikini bottom,” she winked, “has a big fat hole from a long fat spear in it.”
Mr. Smith likewise stood before his son. “Young man, the police will come if you go on walking around in those punctured swimming pants. You aren’t allowed to walk around with a gun for everyone to see, you know.”
Ashton grinned. “Even if it’s limp?”
“When it goes from limp as a rope to hard as a rod of steel in the blink of an eye as yours does? Yes,” said his father. “That’s why you two will head straight to the car and get decent at once.”
The siblings listened to their parents and went to the family’s sunlight-charged hydrogen-powered car to clothe their flawless bodies with T-shirts and shorts. When they came back, workers had prepared the ceremony for awarding the winner. They had set up a windscreen so that the ceremony could happen normally, without the wind carrying words away and blowing medals away. The overseer handed Hae that year’s Shipwreck Bay Surfing Champion medal. The skinny young woman thanked him. Gwen, her twin friends, and the other surfers save for Raymond and his friends congratulated her.
“If I may ask,” said the overseer. “What do want to do with the prize money?”
Hae turned to Ashton, for he had been the nearest one to hurry towards her when the shark swam up to her. “Ashton, what would you have done with the money?”
“Gwen, my sister and I would have invested it in shark and ray protection and gar and sturgeon conservation.”
“Then I’ll do that with half of the money,” said Hae.
Gwen beamed. “Really? You would do that?”
“Of course. After all, your team looked as if it had lost, but then your teammates came up with that marvelous idea and kept your team in the race. They had almost won, and then I came along and snatched the fruit away thanks to luck, I, who had practically given up. It’s only fair if I invest in your cause.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you!” said Ashley.
“But we wouldn’t have won anyway,” said Ashton.
The twins got surprised looks.
Ashton turned to the overseer. “Mr. Jackson, what do the rules say about the numbers of team members at the start and at the finish?”
“That the two must be the same.”
“The same, right?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Well, that’s the problem. When we reached the finish, our team didn’t count three, like when we started; it counted five.”
“Huh?” said Gwen.
“Well,” said Ashley, “my bro and I have been too good at having children together, so I’m pregnant with triplets, two boys and a girl.”
“Congratulations!” said the bulky redhead.
“Those are our kids. Our kids!” said Mr. and Mrs. Smith with obvious pride and caressed Ashton and Ashley’s hair.
“Oh, great! I’m happy that I’m not the reason the three of you – I mean six of you –,” Hae looked at the brother, the pregnant sister, and Gwen, “lost.”
“Why did you have to say that you would’ve lost anyway?” whispered Gwen to her friends.
“Because we knew that …”
Hae said, “I’ll donate half of the prize money to sharks and rays anyway. Isn’t that the least I can do, considering that a shark has won me the prize in the first place?”
“Woo!’’ hollered Gwen. “Good for you!”
“That’s the spirit!” said the twins and smiled warmly at Hae.
“And what will you do with the other half?”
“I’ll donate it to sturgeon and gar protection and the conservation of threatened insects and plants. You know, not only are plants and insects wonderful living beings, but all of us depend on them.”
“How noble of you!” said Gwen.
The siblings nodded. “Indeed.”
Speaking to his audience all over the world, the TV reporter said, “Dr. Hartz, what do you think of the winner’s choice?” He held the mic to the scientist.
“I welcome and applaud it greatly. I could hold many lectures on the great worth of rays, sturgeons, gars, insects, plants, and other wonderful living beings, and I hope our listeners will inform themselves about all of these and help conserve them. But as a shark has spiced up this year’s Shipwreck Bay Surfing Championship, I’m going to focus on sharks today. Sharks bear great weight for the health of the sea’s ecosystems and thereby Earth’s biosphere as a whole, which we are part of and therefore need. They eat dead and dying animals, thereby limiting the spread of diseases and generally keeping the oceans clean. Sharks prey on animals that would otherwise explode in numbers and overstrain the food webs by their feeding. They act as carbon sinks. There are tons of sources of info about the importance of sharks and how you can help protect them on the internet, https://saveourseas.com/why-are-sharks-important/ and https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissacristinamarquez/2019/03/26/why-sharks-matter/?sh=6385532d535c as well as https://sharkdefence.com/why-are-sharks-important/ and https://sharkallies.org/oceans-knowledge-base/why-we-need-sharks being just a few of them.
And sharks help us fight global warming in another way, too. Their skin is covered in placoid scales, dermal toothlets bearing turbulence-breaking ridges that lessen drag and thereby let the graceful animals swim faster and more efficiently. This innovation of our cartilaginous cousins has inspired our engineers to make a ribbed surface for airplanes that allows these machines to fly more efficiently and thus use less fuel and produce less CO2.”
“Now that’s really cool!” said the reporter. “Where can we find out more about this clever invention?”
“For example under https://www.lufthansa-technik.com/aeroshark,” answered the biologist. “In fact, shark skin-like surfaces have already helped win a sailing competition, as you can read under https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Riblets.html. And the usefulness of shark skin-inspired coatings doesn’t end there. Bacteria have a hard time sticking to surfaces that immitate shark skin, so coating door knobs and the like with such surfaces can help reduce infections and save human lives. You can find out more about this wonderful effect under https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2018/acs-presspac-june-13-2018/attacking-bacteria-with-shark-skin-inspired-surfaces.html.”
“I must say I am impressed by the many ways in which sharks are important,” said the reporter.
“Indeed, but don’t forget that sharks are beautiful living beings in their own right and have a right to live and thrive for their own sake, as do all guiltless living things. They aren’t mindless killing machines, as some mistakenly still think, but rather highly feelingful and smart beings. You can find a survey of sharks’ and rays’ intellectual abilities e.g. in the study Smart sharks: a review of chondrichthyan cognition, which you can find under https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-022-01708-3. As for their feelings, you can see them most wonderfully expressed in videos such as https://youtu.be/CbPrRV8b2CI, https://youtu.be/iPGb9FMLl8g, and https://youtu.be/FYonjn1oYcQ.”
TV watchers searched for these videos on their phones. Exclamations of “Unbelievable!” and “Aww! How cute!” followed.
“What is your message to our watchers and listeners, Doctor?” said the reporter.
“First: Learn! Learn how and why sharks are so important and how you, yes, each and every one of you ...” She pointed into the camera. “...can help conserve these magnificent and elegant fish. And then: Do! Act according to your knowledge. Human collectives have to work towards helping sharks. It is the duty of all governments to protect sharks, rays, and the seas in which they dwell and from which we and much of the planet lives. And you as an individual bear a similar responsibility to yourself, your fellow beings, and future generations of humans. Keep this in mind: You can help. You can make a difference. So... what are you waiting for?”
Chapter End Notes:57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RQpWkR5qK
How can we raise more awareness of the need to conserve nature?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡERaWRZJcED
