Postcards from an Ichthyologist

South Pacific

Yumiko, I am being taught to free-dive
by Siakong, a surly, betel-chewing islander.
I didn’t inherit your grace in the water, but
since our visit to Battery Park Aquarium
my heart has belonged to the deep.
Some nights, when it’s too hot to sleep,
I light a driftwood fire and watch
the plankton ripples signalling the moon.
Love to Nobusan and, of course, to you.

Red Sea

Al Ghardaqah is an arid, coastal village,
the fringing reef a trove of starfish, urchins,
hard and soft corals, anemones and sponges.
Yesterday, after hours in Dr Gohar’s laboratory,
I went for a swim and a camel floated past …
Hamed and I believe we may have discovered
a natural shark repellant in a flatfish species,
Pardachirus marmoratus, the Moses sole,
which secretes a milky ichthyotoxin, but
there is yet much research to do.

Baja Peninsula

Today, I hitched a ride with a whale shark
that must have measured over nine metres.
As she slid by I reached for a dorsal fin,
was swept along above her leathery bulk
until I feared we’d travel too far from the boat
and I would get lost or run out of air.
I like the Madagascan name marokintana,
‘many stars’, for her yellow markings.
(David, the National Geographic photographer
thought he’d seen the last of me.)

Based on the adventures of the ‘shark lady’, Dr. Eugenie Clark.