Last Update : Thursday 9 August, 2001 10:15 PM
Last Update : Thursday 9 August, 2001 10:15 PM |
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Combat Manta ray
BEGINNING
COMBAT MANTA RAY (2)
She circled in, rolled her cephalic fins into cylindrical shape for a while and unrolled them again, moved the fin one at a time, then rolled them up again.
“So much like a bull” I kept staring with such curiosity that I had to search from the book. Then I knew that when she does not use cephalic fins, she would roll them up to keep them out of the way. During the time, her mouth would normally be closed, or, opened but not eating.
From the viewfinder I saw her larger…and larger heading my way, not avoiding, veering or curbing. She headed toward me as if saying that if you don’t move, I’ll crash. With the width of more than four meters and the uncountable weight of almost a ton, she was like a car.
“shack” sounded the camera shutter. I took a photograph of her full face to use when lecturing about cephalic fins. After that I had to weight for the flash to recharge itself. It was not a plain waiting since she was less than one meter away from me.
I turned my body to avoid her, looking at the curved wing flapping up before dropping down again…This time it was exactly on my body. She was about to crash. I closed my eyes, swinging my arm up to protect my face.
Eye-witnessed by every diver, she stopped moving her wing, waiting for me to slip away under it. Then she flapped her wing down and swam away.
I have always believed that sea creatures have feelings. But this time it was not only that…I also believe that she was clever. Maybe she is cleverer than what scientist would think. She is so clever to have tender feeling. For her, I must have been any small creature in the sea. She did not want to harm the weaker, although he was in her way.
She was clever and civil….
All through the dive, I did not know how many times I obstructed her. Some times she pulled her head up passed me, leaving me floating still for awhile before looking up above my head. Some times I saw her belly over me. She did not swim, just kept afloat. I was less than one meter under. We both were still, in the sea.
Was this a fish? Was this a lowly animal without soul? I would not believe even if piles of textbooks confirm. I would not believe even if brain to body weight ratio confirms.
I believe what I saw. I believe in feeling transmitted from one mind to another. One man and one fish were in the water…in the middle of blue world…the world we both cared for. I believe we could always be friends.
Go on living here…Manta…Live in the Burmese Sea…Do not return to the Thai Sea.
Stay away from greed and destruction. Remain to be wonder of the blue world.
And pay us a visit…at Surin Island…The last sanctuary I could think of, that crustaceans have rights to live happily.
I waved good-bye to her for the last time when the air ran out, floating up slowly, still looking down under water.
Staring down to memorize all pictures in mind…manta ray in the middle of the water…Her…Manta Ray.
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