Chapter 9 Section IX

"You're right, Professor," said Dr. Keith. "I don't know how you know. There are no large pods of dolphins in range of our hydrophones." "Then we'll take the 'Flying Fish' to find them." "Where to find them? They have a range of at least ten thousand square miles." "Then you have to use observation satellites." Professor Kazan replied. "Call Umera Control and ask them to take pictures within a 50-mile radius of the island. Ask them to take pictures at dawn. There must be a satellite passing over here tomorrow morning."

"Why wait for daylight?" Keith asked. "Oh, I see - that long shadow makes it easy for them to spot the fish." "Yes. It is very difficult to search such a large area. But the time is too long, and the fish will swim elsewhere." Shortly after breakfast, Johnny was called to help scout the fish, and learned about Professor Kazan's plan.It seems that Professor Kazan has a tricky job.The island soon received 25 photographs, each of which captured an area of ​​20 square miles, showing everything inside, down to the last detail.The images were taken an hour after dawn by a weather satellite 500 miles above the ocean.It happened to be a sunny day with no clouds in the sky, and the photos were taken very clearly.A high-powered telephoto camera zooms in on Earth to 5 miles.

The picture Johnny had shown was interesting, though unimportant.This is the center shot in this stitchable photo series, capturing the panorama of Dolphin Island.If you observe carefully with a magnifying glass, those buildings, paths, ships, etc. are all vivid and clearly identifiable.The man on the ground, shown as a small black dot in the photo, is indeed fascinating. After looking at the photos, Johnny really understood the huge scale and scope of the coral reefs around the Dolphin Island.The reef stretches for miles to the east, and Dolphin Island itself appears to be little more than a punctuation mark.Even though it was high tide time, every detail on the coral reef was still clearly visible in shallow water.Johnny carefully observed the pools and underwater valleys, and hundreds of underwater cliffs.These underwater cliffs are formed by the long-term erosion of water that flows back from the reef shelf at low tide.Looking at the photos, Johnny was so fascinated that he almost forgot about his mission—searching for fish schools.

But those searchers were in luck.The pod of dolphins was spotted 60 miles southeast of the island - on the edge of the range where the photo was taken.But the information in the photos was spot on: Dozens of dolphins jumped out of the water; several were photographed just as they jumped out of the water.From the fork of the tail, the pod of dolphins is swimming westward. Professor Kazan looked at the photo with satisfaction. "They're coming for us," he said, "and I can catch them in an hour if we keep our course. How's the Air Fish getting ready to sail?" "We are refueling, and we can start in half an hour."

The professor glanced at his watch.He looked very excited, as if a child had been given something delicious. "Okay," he said simply. "Get on board in 20 minutes." Johnny was on board five minutes later.It was Johnny's first time on a boat (of course, the 'Santa Ana' didn't count, he didn't see much on that hovercraft), and he wanted to see the ship inside and out. The professor was on board—a giant cigar in his mouth, a wide-brimmed Hawaiian sunhat on his head, and a camera and binoculars slung across his chest. "Go!" he said. The "Flying Fish" started immediately.Johnny had just been called from the sailor's lookout, thirty feet above the deck, before the professor came aboard.

The "Flying Fish" passed through a channel artificially dug in the coral reef and stopped outside the reef. "What are you waiting for?" Johnny asked Mick.They stood on the deck, holding on to the railing, and leaned out to look around. "I don't know either," replied Mick, "but I can guess—oh, yes, they're coming! The professor called them over the underwater loudspeaker. Of course, they're always cruising around, ready to will come out of the sea." Two dolphins are swimming towards the "Flying Fish"; they jump out of the water from time to time, as if to attract everyone's attention.As soon as they swam to the side of the boat, they were caught aboard; which Johnny hadn't expected.A crane lowered a canvas bag into the water, two dolphins swam into the bag one after the other, and the crane lifted them up and into the pool at the stern.The pool is not big, two dolphins barely squeezed in it, there is almost no room for movement.But they don't seem to care.Apparently, they've been put in there several times before.

"Aina and Peggy," Mick said. "Two of the smartest dolphins. The professor released them back to the sea a few years ago, but they have always lived nearby and never traveled far." "How do you know who's Aina and who's Peggy?" Johnny asked. "They look exactly alike to me." Mick ran his hands through his unkempt hair. "Ask me, and I can't tell. Aina is easy to recognize—see that scar on his fin? Peggy is his girlfriend, and they're always together. That's all. Ah, look , I think that's Peggy." He didn't seem too sure.

The "Flying Fish" immediately accelerated and sailed towards the sea at a speed of 10 knots, or 10 nautical miles per hour.The captain is Mick's uncle - on this small island, Mick has countless uncles.After the captain waited for all underwater obstacles to be cleared, he accelerated forward. Two miles from the reef, the captain lowered the Skidfish's skis.There was only a roar of the engine, "Flying Fish" jumped forward, then the speed gradually increased, and finally the hull lifted up and left the water with almost no resistance.It can glide on the waves and reach a speed of 50 knots.With the same power, the speed can reach 10 knots even if it breaks through the waves in the sea.

Standing on the foredeck with both hands gripping the railing, racing through the strong winds of the Exocet gliding at full speed - it was invigorating and exciting.But after a while, the wind blew Johnny so hard that he had to retreat behind the bridge and watch Dolphin Island recede and finally disappear under the horizon.At first the island looked like a raft of green white sand floating on the sea, then it became a narrow strip on the horizon, and finally disappeared altogether. During the one-hour voyage, the "Flying Fish" passed several small islands.But Mick said those islands were uninhabitable.But from a distance, the small islands look almost as alluring as Dolphin Island.Johnny couldn't figure out why these little islands were deserted when the world was so crowded.In fact, he had just arrived at Dolphin Island, and he didn't know that to live on the island, he had to solve many problems first: water, electricity, food supply and so on.

The "Flying Fish" suddenly slowed down and landed on the sea again to stop.But there was no land in sight. "Please be quiet, everyone," said the captain loudly. "The professor wants to hear what's going on underwater." The professor came out of the cabin after listening for 5 minutes; he looked very happy. "We're on exactly the right course," he declared. "The pod of dolphins is 5 miles away and they're chatting loudly!" The Flying Fish started again, this time heading slightly west. Ten minutes later, the boat was surrounded by groups of dolphins.

There are hundreds of dolphins that swim effortlessly in the ocean. As soon as the "Flying Fish" stopped, they immediately surrounded it, as if waiting for this visit.Maybe they are really waiting. The crane started working again.It puts Aina into the sea, but only puts Aina down.The professor explained, "There may be a lot of rowdy male dolphins down there. We don't want to cause trouble for Aina, and he wants to do reconnaissance for us." But Peggy was very dissatisfied, and she splashed water desperately, trying to splash people near the pool.But other than that, it can't do much. This, Johnny thought, was the most extraordinary meeting ever held in the world.He stood with Mick on the front deck, threw himself outside, and looked down at the smooth, gray-black dolphins gathered around Aina.What are they talking about?Can Aina understand the words of these cousins ​​in the deep sea?Can the professor understand Aina? Whatever the outcome of their meeting, Johnny was full of gratitude for these friendly, kind, and graceful friends.He wanted the professor to help them as they had helped him. Half an hour later, Aina swam back into the canvas bag, and the crane hoisted it up again.Only then did Peggy feel relieved—and so did the professor. Below decks, the engine roared again.The hull lifted off the sea again.The dolphins followed the Exocet for a few hundred yards, but were soon left behind.The swimming speed of dolphins is very fast, but compared with "Flying Fish", it is nothing.At last Johnny saw only a black band in the distance, leaping up to the sky and disappearing altogether.