The Whale Child by Keith Egawa & Chenoa Egawa

Author:Keith Egawa & Chenoa Egawa [Egawa, Keith & Egawa, Chenoa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781623174873
Publisher: North Atlantic Books

“Overfishing,” Shiny told her. “People taking too much. And they only want one type of fish, so the others caught in the net die on the deck and are dumped overboard in numbers you can’t even imagine. In the last year my mother and I have seen sharks by the millions, dead and discarded with only their dorsal fins cut off so humans can make soup out of them.”

At that moment Alex remembered the voices of her older relatives saying take only what you need from nature; waste nothing and give thanks for what you take. And at that moment she realized that there were others who might not share this belief.

She heard Shiny speak. “Get ready to make a jump many miles from here to the tropics, close to where I was born. To the South Pacific, Alex, where your father’s people are from.”

Alex’s vision became cloudy as they moved through the ocean world in a sudden blur of shifting darkness, shadow, and moonlight.

Soon Shiny and Alex found themselves in a place where the water was much warmer. It was a lonely place where the ocean had become silent and still . . . where no creatures moved about in the miles and miles of dying coral reef.

“Look here,” said Shiny. “Do you remember the pollution in the air . . . in the rain . . . in the snow and in the glaciers?”

Alex nodded. “The pollution that comes back down and flows out into the sea.”

Shiny pointed to the reef. “This is what comes of that. Toxins and acid in the water destroy life in the sea, bit by bit, mile by mile, ocean by ocean. And remember when I told you of temperatures rising on the earth and in the sea? Well, this warming of the water kills the algae that nourish the coral reefs. As you see, the coral bleaches, turns white, and it dies.”

Alex saw that in all directions the bare coral was a sickly greenish-brown and in places as white as bone. She saw no signs of life, except for a lone mantis shrimp walking along the bottom, searching for food that was no longer there.

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