Wild Encounters by Nicolette Scourse

Author:Nicolette Scourse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brown Dog Books

A tiny Cleaner Wrasse faces three clients awaiting cleaning services, including inside their large mouths: a Titan Triggerfish, a spotted Lunar-tailed Grouper and dramatically striped Oriental Sweetlips.

THE LAGOON

It seemed a long, hard swim past areas of rocky walls and coral rubble round the far edge of the island. We passed some sort of grey water drain outlet around which large numbers of fish, large and small, hungrily snapped and grabbed. A sea cucumber, about as long as a fore arm, dangled under a rock hanging by its tail, sausage-like. Easily overlooked, these creatures are the unattractive unsung heroes of the sea floor – certainly amongst European cultures. In Asia they have long been respected and even cultivated as a delicacy and a staple. Before Europeans settled in Australia, the Aborigines of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory were trading with Indonesian traders to supply the Southern Chinese markets. There are 1,000 Japanese haikus (short poems) inspired by sea cucumbers (called namako, usually translated as ‘sea slugs’ which they are not): many of which appear in ‘Rise, Ye Sea Slugs’ by Robin D. Gill, 2003. In nineteenth-century Paris, Erik Satie entitled the first movement of one of his eclectic pieces ‘D’Holothournie’ (their scientific name is Holothurian).

In sharp contrast to such an illustrious cultural background and with no relationship at all to cucumbers this creature has a life of an animated vacuum cleaner. It goes about the basic business of breaking down detritus and unwanted organic waste to a state which bacteria can further continue to decompose – a vital link in marine ecosystems from shallow reefs to the deep sea floor. Sea cucumbers resemble and behave like giant caterpillars, sometimes knobbly, sometimes smooth, with a ring of retractile tentacles around the mouth. Superficially resembling a large elongated coral polyp, they are related to starfish and sea urchins, all based on a radial body plan. The living Beche-de-mer does not have the immediate appeal of a haiku subject or cuisine item: when threatened it has the startling defence of ejecting its internal organs and tubules in a perplexing entangling mass accompanied by a toxic chemical. Straight from the sea, unadorned, they are like extremely tough, salty chewing gum – according to Andrew, our son, who ate them raw for breakfast while ‘living native’ in Pohnpeii, Micronesia. Our Baros sea cucumber was hanging strategically in the drain flow, grasping at anything passing, part of efficient reef economy visibly in action. We swam a wide detour (round the drain rather than the creature) and pushed on.

At last we reached the big sandy lagoon. As we looked around we had the feeling of floating in infinite turquoise space, dazzled by brightness. The shallows gradually shaded from palest tint to distinct colour as far as the eye could see in any direction. Below us the white sand was dappled with dancing light-lines of ripple reflections. Looking up, the underside of the surface gave an illusion of solidity, patterned with flickering wavy streaks. This part of the

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