Swimming With Sharks

by Melissa Cristina Márquez

  “It’s a raid. Sometimes that happens in the fishing markets,” Zev said.

  “Why are they being arrested? There are other sharks here, too.” I motioned to the other mats. Some people had quickly picked up the corners of their mats and left, clearly unsettled by the raid, the officers present, or both.

  Zev listened as the officers and the fishers argued. As he concentrated on that, I took a quick picture of what was unfolding before us. He then turned to me and said, “It’s a banned species for capture in Sri Lanka. And they apparently brought almost forty pounds of shark fins with them.”

  “Illegal ones?” I asked.

  “Aren’t all shark fins obtained illegally?” Dilip asked.

  I shook my head. “Not exactly. Shark finning has a particular definition: the removal of a shark’s fins while it is still on the fishing vessel and dumping the rest of the shark overboard. Sometimes fishers bring the shark on land with their fins attached and then take off their fins—but that isn’t ‘shark finning,’ according to the experts’ definition. And those fins would be legal.”

  “Oh, like shark fins for that soup?” Punya asked.

  I nodded. “Do you guys have shark fin soup here?”

  My friends shrugged their shoulders, Punya mumbling something like “sura puttu.” I was about to ask what that meant when fresh yelling made us turn our attention back to the officials, who were now putting handcuffs on the fishers.

  “Holy crap!” Zev said. We all looked at him for an explanation. And boy, did we get one. It turned out that the thresher shark the fishers had caught weighed more than five hundred pounds!

  “I wonder …” I muttered under my breath.

  “What, Adrianna?” my friends asked.

  “Well, did they accidentally catch this shark and bring it back to the market to sell, or did they go looking for it?” I asked.

  “I doubt they targeted this one specific shark, Adrianna. The ocean is very big and sharks, even the biggest ones, like these, are small,” Manisha said with a playful roll of her eyes.

  I stuck my tongue out. “Not like that! I mean, did they have a specific buyer?”

  “Who would want a big shark and some fins?” asked Dilip.

  “People who know how much money something like that could make …” I said, mostly to myself.

  The noise around me started to drown out as I looked around the market to see if I could find the possible buyers if they hadn’t already been scared off by the officials. They probably would stand out from the locals and look sort of like tourists … sort of like me.

  As my eyes scanned the bit of the market I could see, I looked for people who were trying to blend in as much as they could. It wasn’t long before I spotted someone who sorely stood out, even though she tried to cover her pale arms with colorful fabric. She had long, light blonde hair in a braid behind her back. I felt a pit grow in my stomach as I realized I knew her.

  “Adrianna, what’s the matter? You look worried. Are you feeling okay?” Zev asked, once again tugging at my elbow. I pointed at the blonde and said to the group, “I know her! At least, if she is who I think she is, then we have the possible buyers. Poachers. But I need you guys to see if you can spot a tall, tanned guy with tattoos. He might have a hat! And sunglasses!”

  “You mean like him?” Manisha asked, pointing to Mr. Muscle Lucky Charms himself. He even had a black hat on, just like the last time. I wondered if it had the fishing lure symbol stitched in gray on the front. I gulped, nervous. I could never forget his face.

  When the blonde woman and he met up and chatted, it reminded me of the first time Feye and I had seen them in the hidden mangrove channel back in Cuba.

  “Who are they?” Dilip asked, sounding a bit scared. I felt just like he sounded.

  “Poachers. And dangerous ones,” I said, looking as the woman gave him a hug. She almost seemed friendly when she briefly smiled at him, but the stone-faced mask quickly went back on when the fishers started yelling again as they began to be hauled away.

  “They’re clever and are okay with hurting people to get the animal they’re after,” I continued, echoing what Dad’s friend Soriano had said back in Cuba.

  “Then we should go. Now,” Zev insisted.

  “One second,” I said as I brought the camera up to my face and focused the lens on them. With a snap of the camera, I took a picture of the poachers to show my parents and the camera crew. If the poachers were here, it could only mean trouble—maybe they had heard about the Pondicherry shark, too!

  I was prepared for the whirring noise of the camera, but I wasn’t prepared for the flash that went off. Every face turned to look at our group, including the poachers, whose faces morphed from confused to recognition in a millisecond.

  As they came closer to us, it made me wish we had told our parents, the crew, Mr. Savage … someone … where we were.

  The woman started toward us. I had almost forgotten how tall and muscular she was.

  “It’s that kid, Sarge!” I heard her yell, with an accent I couldn’t place. Had I noticed it the last time our paths crossed?

  “Adrianna! Let’s go!” Zev whispered, snapping me out of my trance. I looped my camera strap around my neck and took his hand as our group dashed through the people who had gathered to see the result of the raid.

  “Split up! Meet back at the hotel!” I said to Manisha, Punya, and Dilip. They nodded and took a left turn at the next aisle while Zev and I took a right—only to hit a dead end.

  “We’re trapped!” I squeaked. Somehow, we had come across the only closed-off part of this whole marketplace. I looked back and expected to see the blonde woman right behind us. But instead of a poacher, I saw my brother!

  “Feye! What are you doing here?”

  “I’ll explain later. Come on, follow me!”

  Once more we ran through the maze of people, eventually finding an open door and bursting onto the beach.

  “Don’t stop running!” Feye said, looking down at his phone’s map.

  We ran for a few more minutes until we were all panting and covered in sweat thanks to the humidity.

  “Can we at least slow down to a jog now?” I asked.

  “I don’t think anyone followed us,” Zev said.

  Feye suddenly stopped with a big sigh, turning to us with furrowed eyebrows.

  “What in the world were you thinking, running off like that? Without even telling me!” Feye said. By the twinge of hurt in his voice, I realized my brother was really upset. I didn’t realize he cared so much about being included in what I did.

  “I’m responsible for you, Adrianna!” he continued, and I frowned. Oh, so he was just worried about getting in trouble with our parents? Typical big brother move.

  “She was with me and I know where I’m going,” Zev interjected.

  “No offense, Zev, but you two are kids,” Feye said, exasperation in his voice. “You could’ve gotten into real trouble and no one would’ve known where to even begin looking for you!”

  “So how did you know where to look, hermano?” I asked.

  He held up his phone. “The find-my-phone app,” he said. “And I saw you leave while I was swimming, so I got out of the pool and followed you.”

  I sighed. “Well … thanks, I guess. Things did get a bit out of hand. I didn’t realize we would be walking into a raid! I just wanted to take some photos of the sharks for the shark festival.”

  “The one that hasn’t been approved yet?” Feye asked. I knew he didn’t mean it in a bad way. He had a point. We hadn’t heard back from the network on whether they liked the idea yet.

  “The very one,” I answered.

  “Well, for what it’s worth, I like the idea of the shark festival. But why the photos?” Feye asked, continuing to lead us closer to the hotel. I could see the bright pink roof from where we were and I let out a sigh of relief. As I explained to Feye why I wanted to take the photos, I saw his expression change and knew he was impressed. I held up my ca
mera as I told him we also had a photo of the poachers to show our parents and Mr. Savage to alert them of the danger the Pondicherry shark could be in.

  “You think they’re after it?” Feye questioned.

  “Maybe. I don’t really know. But surely we weren’t the only ones who heard about this super-rare shark that might be in this area,” I said.

  “Hm … well, let me see these pictures. You’ve given me an idea,” he said, motioning for the camera. I unlooped it from around my neck and passed the hunk of bulky technology to him. As he clicked through the photos, his eyebrows danced in what I thought was a mixture of approval and … well, something else I couldn’t quite place.

  “Hey, some of these are really good! But that poacher picture won’t be of any use.” He passed me back the camera and pointed out the last photo I had taken. Of course it had my finger in the way, so you couldn’t see any faces and instead you just saw two pairs of legs and feet.

  Oh no!

  “But the good photos? If you want, I can share them on my social media feeds and tell people more about shark fishing and trade,” Feye said. “Every little bit helps.”

  We made it to the front doors of our hotel, where Manisha, Dilip, and Punya were already waiting for us.

  “We’re so glad you’re safe!” Manisha yelled, giving us both a big hug. After our hug, I stepped back and stood next to my brother, introducing them to my new friends.

  “Feye was just saying our photos might be good enough to post on social media,” I explained, making sure everyone was caught up in the conversation.

  “There’s a huge demand for shark fins in many Asian countries. Maybe sharing another viewpoint could make people think twice about their choices,” Feye explained.

  “That’s a great idea!” I exclaimed, hugging my brother. He was so cool. Sometimes.

  “Why are you so passionate about sharks, Adrianna?” Manisha asked.

  “Well, because … they are so misunderstood. They’re not the cutest things to look at, so many people think of them as these monsters. But they’re an important part of the ocean’s food web and are usually a good indicator of whether or not a habitat is healthy,” I explained. “Like, a healthy coral reef usually has many sharks patrolling it!”

  “I never thought about it like that,” said Punya. Suddenly, her phone started to ring and she glanced at the screen.

  “We better go. It’s getting late for us. See you tomorrow? We can give you our photos then!” Dilip said.

  “I’m gonna head home, too. I’ve had enough adventure for one day!” Zev agreed. Feye and I nodded, waving goodbye to the group as they scurried away from our hotel’s door. Once they were out of sight, Feye turned to me.

  “Well, there’s only one thing to do now,” he said.

  “What’s that?” I asked, following him into the lobby and up to the hotel’s elevator.

  “Try to sneak back into our room without having to explain to our parents where we’ve been …”

  As soon as we stepped out of the elevator, we saw our dad standing at the door of our hotel room, arms crossed.

  Mom rubbed her temples with her slender fingers. “Adrianna, I don’t know which is worse: the pain in my arm or the headache you give me whenever you pull stunts like this,” she mumbled.

  I shot an appreciative glance toward Feye, grateful he hadn’t told our parents about the run-in with the poachers we’d seen in Cuba. With no photographic proof to back up my claim, there was no point. Plus, if they had believed me, they wouldn’t let me out of their sight for a second the rest of our time here. I couldn’t have that.

  Instead, Feye had just told them I had run off to the market to take pictures of the sharks there for the possible shark festival. He even left Zev out of it! I was very thankful in that moment to a brother who often had my back and supported my plans—however foolish they might be.

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” I whispered. “It was a reckless thing for me to do.”

  “And irresponsible! I thought you had grown up a little during our Cuba trip,” Dad said.

  I hung my head down and that’s when Feye put a strong, reassuring hand on my shoulder.

  “Sure, she messed up,” he said. “But she has an amazing idea.”

  “And Feye has a good idea about sharing the photos on his social media channels!” I chimed in.

  “Feye, we have to be careful about these posts. We can’t blame the fishers for this,” Dad said.

  “We don’t want to offend anyone,” my mom continued. “Fishermen make everyday decisions about where to fish and what to catch. The decline of sharks is a problem that affects fisheries, and people’s livelihoods. We need to work together with them to support sustainable fishing practices—something that benefits them and helps conserve our oceans in the long run.”

  “So, what do you think we should do?” Feye asked Mom.

  After a bit of discussion, it was Dad who came up with a great idea to work with my shark photography plan. We’d do a series of portrait photographs of the fishermen. Alongside the portraits would be a little bit about why they are proud to be fishers and their relationship with the ocean.

  “This might actually work!” Feye smiled.

  “I’ll call Mr. Savage. Although he and the crew might be downstairs eating dinner, given the time,” Dad said. He picked up the phone and dialed, listened for a while, then frowned. “It’s just ringing. He must not be in his room,” Dad said.

  “Well, guess we just have to go downstairs and find him!” I declared, motioning toward the door with big hand gestures. Come on, familia Villalobos! Hustle!

  After what felt like forever, I was able to wrangle my dad and brother out of our hotel room and into the elevator that would take us to the ground floor, where the restaurant was. If I thought it would be hard to spot our crew, I was wrong. I could easily make out Connor’s loud Australian accent as he argued with Mark and Alice that he could have two servings of everything if he pleased.

  “Ah! If it isn’t our star family!” Mr. Savage said, standing up and shaking my father’s hand. “Pull up a chair and join us.”

  We sat down and looked at the feast before us. A multitude of dishes in bright greens, yellows, reds, and oranges were piled high on stark white plates, making my mouth water as each crew member took a heaping spoonful of each and added it to their own plate. I grabbed a menu and, as I expected from an island in the Indian Ocean, seafood was the key ingredient in most of the Sri Lankan cuisine before us. I tried to identify some of the food on the table: fish ambul thiyal, kottu roti, kukul mas curry, lamprais … jeez, how much were these guys eating?!

  “Have y’all eaten dinner yet?” Alice asked, stabbing a piece of roti with her fork and quickly taking it away from the communal pile.

  “The kids just got back from an adventure to the fish market,” Dad said, jerking his head toward us. “Adrianna was especially keen to tell you guys about it.”

  “Oh! The one down the road a fair way?” Mark asked, some rice coming out of his full mouth. He held up a hand in apology.

  “That’s the one!” I beamed, getting my camera ready to show them my photography. I might not always get the shot—hello, finger in my most important photo yet—but the ones I did manage to get from the market made me feel super proud.

  “We’re filming there the day after tomorrow,” Mr. Savage said. He turned to me. “You getting into the mindset of a producer and staking out our film sites?” Everyone at the table laughed.

  I shook my head. “Not quite. I had another idea, though.”

  “More ideas?” Connor said.

  I told them about my feelings after the outburst I had at the restaurant, the elephant encounter, and how I saw people coexisting with these beautiful creatures, which got me thinking about how culturally important they are in this part of the world. I knew we were still waiting to hear back from the network to see if the Shark Appreciation Festival would even happen, but I hoped the photo gallery idea of sharks
and fishermen would add to it. Mark and Alice took my camera and went through my photos. Every now and then they would nod and show the photo to Mr. Savage, who would comment about the lighting or the angle.

  “I think it’d be a really cool segment for the show,” I finished. “Our family working together with the local community to learn about their culture and educate them about sharks through their own scientists and us.”

  Feye then took over, showing how many followers he had on his various social media accounts and how having a series of photos using specific hashtags like #wildlife or #sharks would bring attention to what we were doing in Sri Lanka. Dad went on to explain how to further the reach in the local area by working with both the fishermen and the scientists to share their stories.

  Mr. Savage was quiet for a long time after we finished telling him our ideas. He had put his fork down halfway through my speech and had stopped chewing to give us his full attention. It felt nice, to be respected enough by an adult to have them listen wholeheartedly. I kind of felt a bit more grown-up myself!

  “The network hasn’t made a final decision on the shark festival, as you know,” said Mr. Savage. Oh no, I could feel a wave of disappointment coming on. “But I think this might just be the thing they need to hear to give us the go-ahead.”

  My face broke out into a huge grin as I clapped my hands with enthusiasm. He liked the idea!

  “I’m going to call the network again to tell them what you’ve come up with and see where they stand,” he continued. “Since we are still waiting to hear on whether this critter in the restaurant is the Pondicherry shark or not, we can explore this avenue until then. Between the elephants, sea snakes, and this? If we can pull this off … oh!”

  His freckled, pale hand slammed against the table, making everyone’s glasses rattle and shake. Some even spilled some liquid over their edges.

  “This is going to be a huge hit if we pull it off. I can just see it. ‘Family fights for monster’s rights.’ It’s perfect!”

  I cringed as Mr. Savage called sharks “monsters” since that was the exact opposite of what I wanted people to think of them as. But if it got us the green light from the network, well, could I really complain?