Story Three: The Aquarium

For her fifth birthday, Emily’s parents took her to the Coral Ocean Aquarium. The outside of the building was bright blue, like the ocean, and murals of corals, reef fish, sting rays, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, and octopi were painted on each wall. Emily’s favorite painting was of the butterflyfish. She loved the way its yellow scales stood out so brightly against the blue water.

Inside the aquarium, Emily’s mother paid their admission while the receptionist put a stamp on Emily’s hand. The stamp was of a sea turtle, and Emily pretended that the turtle was swimming up her arm.

The first tank that the family went to held several leopard sharks. Emily wasn’t scared of the sharks; they were young, so they were small. Her pet cat at home was more frightening than these animals. But Emily wondered where all of the reef fish were. She hoped the sharks hadn’t eaten them. At the bottom of the tank, a large red starfish clung to the sandy bottom. The sharks swam over it without noticing it. Emily wondered why they weren’t as excited to see the starfish as she was. She tugged on her father’s hand, pointing her tiny finger against the glass of the tank: “Look!” she told him. Her father didn’t know what she was pointing at, so he just smiled, took Emily’s hand, and walked to the next tank.

This tank held the corals and fishes that Emily had been looking for. She stood, wide-eyed, hands and face pressed against the tank. Her mouth was slightly open, and the wonder in her expression was reflected in the glass. She watched the anemone fish swim in and out of their anemone homes, trying to hide, but she thought their orange bodies were much too bright to ever be completely hidden. The butterflyfish swam regally past all the other fish. Emily thought they were the most beautiful of all, and she wondered if the other fish were jealous.

Emily and her family stopped to look at many tanks. They saw many more reef fishes, freshwater turtles, frogs, sea cucumbers, catfish, sea snakes, an octopus, sting rays, and much larger sharks.

The tank with the large sharks held adult leopard sharks, shovel-nosed rays, freshwater sawfish, and a tawny nurse shark. Emily still wasn’t scared of these sharks, though they were much larger, but she was happy that they were on one side of the glass and she was on the other. She and her parents watched the sharks being fed. The tawny nurse shark, who was sleeping on the sand when they arrived, was suddenly awake and active, finding food to eat. Emily heard the aquarium guide talking about the predators and their behavior, but she wasn’t listening, because she had noticed something much more exciting.

There, at the surface of the water, was a green sea turtle. The turtle must have been very hungry, because he was eating everything he saw. He even grabbed a squid right out from under a shark’s nose! Emily watched his feeding frenzy. The turtle could swim very quickly with is strong, fin-shaped flippers, and he probably ate more than his fair share of the food being thrown into the tank. This turtle was much larger than the freshwater turtles Emily had seen in a smaller tank earlier, and he was a much better swimmer. His shell was a beautiful mottled-brown and gold. Emily compared the stamp on her hand to the turtle swimming above, and she was happy that she had a chance to watch the sea turtle.

The aquarium guide pointed at the sea turtle and began to speak about it. Emily listened to the guide, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the turtle.

“This green sea turtle is four years old. He’s much larger than many turtles his age, because he is fed so well here,” the guide said. “He was found at Palm Island and brought to us just about a year ago. Right now, he will eat almost anything—he’ll even try to eat the hair of the scuba divers when they go in the tank!—but as he gets older, he’ll become a vegetarian and start to eat what’s good for him: mainly sea grasses and algae.”

Emily continued to watch the turtle swimming at the surface, eating whatever he could find. Many damselfish crowded around him to eat the debris that was shed from the food as he bit into it.

When the aquarium guide was finished speaking, Emily dragged her parents to her by the hands.

“What is the turtle’s name?” she asked, quietly but determinedly, pointing to the sea turtle and looking expectantly at the guide.

The aquarium guide smiled down at Emily. “His name is Wayamba,” she told her. “It’s an Aboriginal word for ‘turtle.’”

“Wayamba,” Emily repeated, satisfied.

When Emily and her parents left the aquarium, Emily waved goodbye to Wayamba. She thought she saw him wave his flipper back at her, and she hoped to see him again.

Emily’s parents bought her an ice cream on the way to the car. She ate it greedily, almost as quickly as the sea turtle gobbled up the food thrown to him. “What was your favorite animal to see?” her mother asked, wiping the chocolate from Emily’s face with a napkin.

“Wayamba, the sea turtle,” Emily said decisively, looking down at the stamp on her hand and smiling.