Fishy Encounters

The water was cold and I was dressed in goosebumps. I had been trailing a lone fish, weaving through the multicolored coral, over various sea anemone, and past a myriad of other living sea life. Down below was a whole other world, but I couldn’t help comparing the rice terraces in Bali to the terrace-like coral blanketing the floor. We were now in a mini crevasse and I was catching up to the fish—it’s blue, graceful body just inches below my face. Suddenly it began to swim down and just as I was about to follow, tiny brown objects evaporating into even tinier dust particles appeared where a fish used to be. Jerking my head back I stopped momentarily, letting the streak of blue fade into the distance. I was more intrigued than disgusted. I had just witnessed a fish poop! Out of everything I can’t believe that that one little incident would be a prominent highlight of my day. But as I exited the narrow crevasse and made a sharp right, I saw yet another astonishing sight.

I had gotten to the edge of the coral and from there it cut off, plummeting straight down into the sandy bottom that I could barely make out. I dared not go over the edge, I understood Nemo’s friends. Then, looking ahead, coming towards me, was a school of shiny green fish. The vast number of small bodies all swimming together was enough to make me hold my breath in wonder, though I noticed a few of them abruptly change their course of direction… and then their color. Soon, one after the other, each guy slowly began to go from green to blue following the newly set path. I didn’t understand. One of the Marine Biologists aboard the boat had said you could see these color-changing fish and it had sounded cool even then, but to actually witness it was beyond anything. The Great Barrier Reef just kept getting better and better. I wonder what next I’ll find….