Whale and Paddle Surfer, Sea of Cortez, Baja, Sur

Editor's Note: One of the world’s most biologically rich subtropical seas, the Gulf of California or Sea of Cortez is a critical feeding, breeding, and nursery ground for some of the world's rarest marine animals, including 32 species of marine mammals, 170 species of sea birds, 3,000 species of invertebrates, and 875 species of fish. The 900 or more islands and islets in the gulf serve as important nesting sites for migratory and residential birds and breeding grounds for sea lions. The coral and rocky reefs that dot its shallow waters are home to a wide variety of endemic species, including corals that do not exist in any other sea. In a recent study, the Gulf of California ranked 6th in the world’s top ten marine biodiversity hot spots for tropical reefs. The reef at Cabo Pulmo is now under threat from development: The Threat to Baja's Underwater Rainforest.

 

Because of the gulf’s high productivity, the world's two largest whales, the blue whale and the fin whale, are regularly seen in these waters.  They are both long thin whales (our images years ago were distorted since photos only existed for bloated dead whales). An average blue whale is between 75 and 80 feet (23 to 24.5 m) long (up to 90 feet), and weighs about 110 tons (99,800 kg). Ten feet shorter, the fin has half the bio-mass. As more studies are done on blue whales in the gulf, it’s becoming clear that there is a core group of female blue whales that return year after year to use the Sea of Cortez as a nursery. Of the 85 species of Cetacea (ten great whales, 55 species of dolphins and porpoises, and the so-called lesser whales most of whom have bigger brains than we in a weightless environment), at one time there were 37 species found in the Sea of Cortez.*

 

Suppose for a moment

that people began to disappear,

one at a time,

off the street, from their yards, from the supermarket

            parking lot.

 

Suppose they were hooked, one by one,

by a species working from another dimension

            or an earth orbit if you like.

 

Suppose that people began to miss

their colleagues, acquaintances, and relatives

but not very much.

In a way they were glad to be done with them.

At least those left were still swimming along.

The chosen few were spared, they felt, quite judiciously

            by the gods.

Besides there had been a problem of “uncontrollable

      population growth.”

Also, the people disappeared so neatly.  Never a trace.

 

That had happened in Germany some years before

but everything worked out all right there

in the end,

Didn’t it?

 

Now this orbiting species

was packaging for eating

the men, women, and occasional children

who were hooked

for they tasted something like

a preferred dish from home.

***

 

Some nut among the visiting species

wondered

if the everywhere species of featherless biped

might not possess low grade intelligence.

This passing voiced wondering went unheard amid

the throng, the scurry, the bustle, the hurry

to expedite, organize and wind up

the hunt for homo sap.

 

Still one visiting orbiter

looked at a dead specimen of the creature

reported to have paved a good section of earth and

  routed many forms of life

and tried to imagine

what spiritual qualities, what noble cast of mind,

what brimming generosity, what vaulted aspirations

might inhabit and haunt

a possible mind

housed

in three pounds of putty.

 

His emerging theory about a low order of communication,

based primarily on how well they could see to copy

one another

(according to reports from the forward-hooking observers)

met the general shrug

if they are smart

why are they so easily caught?

 

A solo plea for further consideration of these bipeds,

since their numbers were waning rather rapidly lately,

was officially answered.

“These bipeds are just hiding better.

They are to be sought out, hooked, pickled or freshly frozen,

            and packaged, quickly.

Get on with the job, get it done.”

***

Near the end the small voice of a duly constituted committee

whispered

that the bipeds could produce an annual image of themselves

and their importance as a continuing food source

should be taken properly into consideration.

The stereophonic modulated reply was,

“…the hooking devices and trained crew would

just move on

to fresh air in a new star system when this one ceased to pay off.

There were many systems

still left to hook.”

 

And even the nut began to see things like the others.

He pierced the ballooned folly of supposing

a mimicking war-fascinated death-driven polluting

overpopulating cocky species had some glimmer

of the first rays of intelligence.

Consciousness of self yes, a full inspection of the navel,

and the probing of the dirt therein enfolded,

but still awaiting the first rays.

 

But what of the mind of the sperm whale who they say

had a brain of 20 pounds?

 

We may never know.

 

published in The Mind in the Waters, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974

 

*Source: David L. Alles, Western Washington University . And Scott McVay

To learn more about the organizations working to save the Cabo Pulmo Coral Reef and sign a petition to strengthen their efforts, click here: Cabo Pulmo Vivo.

 

To support our mission and passion for good storytelling, please make a tax-deductible donation by clicking here:  Wild River Donation.