The Floating Forest by Linda Chapman

Author:Linda Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was lovely to be out on the reef after a day at school. It stretched on and on through the ocean. Clouds of fish streamed by and pale anemones waved their tentacles from the banks of multicoloured coral as crabs, lobsters and starfish edged across the sand and rocks.

As Coralie and the others swam to the seagrass meadow, they gathered up any rubbish they saw – bottles and straws, plastic bags and bits of broken netting. They put them in their satchels so that sea creatures didn’t get tangled up in the plastic or try to eat it.

Every so often, Dash glanced round sharply. “What is it?” Coralie asked, not seeing anything unusual behind them. Dash whistled but she didn’t understand.

Finally they reached the large seagrass meadow. They headed to the barnacle-covered cave that Luna’s mum had told them about. Peeping in, they saw eight giant cuttlefish resting on the bottom of the cave. The cuttlefish were about fifty centimetres long, their bodies covered in bright orange-and-blue patterns.

“No eggs yet,” whispered Coralie, keeping her voice down so she didn’t startle them.

“Let’s leave them in peace,” whispered Naya. “I don’t want to get covered in ink.”

“Definitely not – it takes days to wear off,” whispered Kai. “I sat on a cuttlefish once. It squirted me and I was grey for a week!”

They left the cave and swam into the meadow. It was a large flat area of seagrass where turtles and manatees grazed. Tommy and Melly swam off to say hello while the others checked the nesting boxes. They were buried among the seagrass. The idea was that the babies could hatch safely, away from hungry fish, and when they left the nesting boxes they’d be able to live happily in the meadow, feeding on the plankton there.

Coralie and the others checked each nesting box, lifting the lids and peering inside. Sami looked in too. It was the male sea dragons that looked after the eggs, not the females – just like with seahorses. In every nesting box there was a father with a fat pouch of eggs but no babies yet. Coralie smiled. Hopefully there would be loads of babies soon!

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