My Grandma

My Grandma The Marine biologist

   Under the water, a whole new world begins that is different than the one I know above the water surface.  When you look into the water, it appears very dark, but the light keeps travelling through the water so it is sunny, under the sea, too.  This world comes alive with sea turtles, octopus and many fish that never stop moving.   With a backdrop of sea-weed forests and coral reefs, one can see playful sea otters, seals and many, many more creatures.  Their lives are controlled by the seasons and the tides.   I worry because I feel this lovely place is impacted by human activity and their greed for money and profit.
  I remember going down to the seashore with my Grandma.  She took me when the tide was out.  There were so many creatures to see in the tide pools: little orange crabs, sand dollars and tiny fish.  Grandma told me about each one and how it lived.  I love remembering the smell of the salt air and thinking about how the water went on forever.  Once in a while, we would we climb on the large rocks that graced the shore and watch the sun go down. We watched the seagulls swoop and drop their clams on the rocks below to break the shells and then dive down to eat the meat from the broken shell.  I loved these trips with my Grandma.
   I loved everything about Grandma.  She took me after my Mom and Dad died.  My parents were  on a science expedition collecting data on sea life affected by the wreck of a submerged airplane.  A freak storm came in fast and capsized their boat.  The boat was found crashed against the rocky shore and my parents were never found
   In spite of this tragedy, I love the ocean too, and feel inspired by my parents' work and everything about the sea that I learn from Grandma.  Grandma was a marine biologist, with her interest being about the plankton in the water and the invertebrates that populate the shores and bottoms, like crabs and sand dollars and anemones.    Sometimes she would take me on expeditions to collect samples.  I love being out there on the ocean with Grandma , not only is it fun and I learn things, but it makes me feel closer to Mom and Dad.
   One day I want to be like her. I liked helping to collect bottom samples and mapping the ocean floor.  Most of the news she learned was sad news.  There was loss of some sea life like the information about the coral reefs dying because of acidic ocean water and the warmer seawater temperatures.   It takes a lifetime for coral to grow and it can be carelessly damaged by fishing  using trawl nets – she tells me that the bottom gets so churned it takes a lifetime for it to be repopulated with bottom animals and fish.
   Maybe I will become an engineer and design systems that can clean the ocean water and help protect the areas that need to regrow.  For now, I can only watch as the tide moves in and out and looking at the little crabs die and the sand dollars turn gray.

"Nooooo!" I cried to Grandma, "Don't let the little crabs die or the sand dollars turn gray!" 
"Oh, Honey!"  She said.  "That is the natural way of things – as some animals die, more are hatched or born and they grow to live in that space and it is a cycle of life, it is the way it is meant to be"
"Will you die Grandma?"  That thought just killed me inside.
"Of course I will, but not anytime soon, if I have anything to do about it" Grandma said as she took my hand.  I felt a little better, just a little.
   We had a big trip planned, Grandma and I.  I was so looking forward to going with Grandma.  This year I turned sixteen and Grandma had given me a birthday present of scuba diving courses.  I passed all my tests and the open water experience was more exciting than I expected.   Grandma was going diving with me and I was just bursting with anticipation.  It actually hurt when I smiled because I had a grin so wide I could feel the edges of my lips touch my ears.  I thought I would catch every bug that flew by in my teeth.
   We were going to dive in a local inlet and Grandma was going to show me small stuff growing on the underwater cliffs and anything else she thought  that would interest me.
   We arrived at the dive site and slowly got all our gear on, helping each other.  I was feeling a little clumsy because the equipment is heavy and I was still getting used to how it all went together.  Grandma was so helpful and patient and then we were entering the water together.  We walked backwards so that our flippers wouldn't impede our progress through the seaweeds and then we were in deep enough water that we could flop back, roll over and start descending into the deeper water.  I was amazed at how light it was when we were down about thirty feet.  The sunlight shone through the water and it was quite light so it was wonderful to look at the sea creatures that Grandma was pointing out to me.  She was looking into a small crevice below me when I saw a movement to my right. To my amazement an octopus was crawling over the sloping rock surface beside me. 
   I stared and then it crawled up my arm and sat on my head!  It was amazing to look at the suckers sticking on the glass of my face mask right next to my eyes and it continued to sit on my head!   Grandma told me later that she was proud that I was so "cool" in that I did not move or thrash about and let the octopus look around as seemed to want to do.  However, a small problem started to become apparent.  The weight of its body nestled on my face mask, caused water to leak into the mask around my right cheek.   I had learned how to clear my mask of water in the scuba classes so I waited until the last minute to reach up and hold my mask tight and tilt my head and blow air into the mask through my nose.  In doing this mask clearing task, the octopus slowly slid of my head and left by gliding over my left arm and back onto the boulder . Wow!
   What an amazing introduction into scuba adventures with getting a welcoming hug from an octopus. Grandma always said they were her favorite invertebrate because they were so much fun!  She told me more stories about her experiences with octopus over the years and I believe they have become my favorite underwater animal too