PORPOISE GHOST THE 1 CHAPTER Asia Wilde put her field journal into her backpack then climbed up the companionway to the deck of the Ghost Porpoise to find her little brother Ring He was standing at the bow using a set of mounted high-powered binoculars to scan the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico sandwiched between two other spotters I saw two bottlenose dolphins he said without taking his eyes from the binoculars A sea turtle and a humpback whale which I’m going to sketch when I get the time Ring and Asia recorded their experiences in field notebooks Asia wrote hers in words Ring sketched his in No vaquita Asia asked pictures Nope it clicking There is definitely one of them around here We heard Ring looked at her What do you mean by clicking
2 Echolocation I was listening on sonar Vaquitas don’t sing like dolphins and whales they make clicking sounds to communicate Trisha the sonar operator told me that only one vaquita makes the echolocation clicks while the others if there are others remain silent She called the one clicking the PIC porpoise in charge She thinks it’s a lone vaquita and probably a known one meaning it’s been documented with photographs I hope she’s wrong Ring was used to his sister’s long-winded answers to simple questions She couldn’t help herself because of her encyclopedic memory She never forgot anything she had learned Ring said Well we’ve seen a lot of animals but not a vaquita I’m not surprised with only ten left in the world and I hear they’re hard to spot Asia said The dorsal fin is small and dark against the dark water It’s no wonder they’re called ghost porpoises Ring rubbed the bridge of his nose I have a headache from staring at the water Or maybe I’m hungry Wanna spell me Sure Asia said and took his place Ring made his way toward the stern The sea was calm and the ship was barely pitching but he had to hold on to the rail to steady himself after two hours staring at the glaring ocean The spotter next to him had puked twice The VAQUITA
3 since sunrise Occupational hazard for spotters Ring was a little queasy himself He hoped the food would settle his stomach He also hoped that Asia didn’t spot a vaquita while he was eating below deck That would be just my luck he thought as he followed the tantalizing smell of bacon down to the galley He piled a plate with pancakes scrambled eggs toast and bacon He slathered the pancakes with butter drowned them in maple syrup then began wolfing the mess down with the help of a large glass of cold orange juice This ship might run aground or sink but no one aboard is going to starve to death he thought loading up a second plate The crew was a little annoyed at having two kids aboard but they couldn’t complain because their dad Dr Jack Wilde was paying all the expenses of this vaquita voyage including the food A crew member named Betty came in and poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from Ring No luck she asked Nope Ring said Don’t get discouraged I’ve been on this ship nearly a year and I’ve only seen a vaquita three times and it was the same one in three different places Last year they had dozens of sightings Either the population has drastically dropped or we are looking in the wrong places If they’re picking up echolocations on sonar one of The WILDES
4 them must be around here Ring said He poured himself another glass of orange juice and put another pancake on his plate even though he was full What’s your name again she asked Ring doubted she had forgotten his name but he answered her anyway My name is Ring Unusual name I was born in Madagascar where my mom was studying ring-tailed lemurs Asia was born in Asia where Mom was studying saiga antelope named after a monkey Betty smiled She’s named after a continent and you’re Ring returned her smile even though it wasn’t the first time he’d heard the joke Technically lemurs are prosimians not monkeys but yeah you’re right Is your mom in San Felipe Ring shook his head She’s in Brazil working on a golden lion tamarin reintroduction near the Xingu River We were with her before we came up here That must have been interesting Betty said It was Ring thought if you consider kidnapping and being shot at interesting But he didn’t mention it She’s training a new batch of graduate students to do the observations She’ll be up here for the summit but I don’t know when Knowing his mom it could be days She had a hard time turning her reintroductions over to others The VAQUITA
