Chapter 14 Section Fourteen

Now, Johnny and Mick go swimming with two dolphins every day.On the one hand, they try to figure out how smart the dolphins are; on the other hand, they try to get acquainted with the dolphins in order to obtain their cooperation.Now they can tolerate Mick with them; Mick uses the talker and they can obey.But the two dolphins are still not very friendly to Mick.Sometimes they even frightened him—they rushed at him suddenly, bared their teeth, and slid past him just as they were about to hit him.For Johnny, they never frightened him, but nibbled his flippers or rubbed his body, hoping he would tickle them or stroke their smooth body.

The prejudice of Suzie and Sputnik made Mick very frustrated. He didn't understand why they liked the "little white-skinned" Johnny-this is Mick's impression of his white friends.Like humans, dolphins have personalities, and their likes and dislikes don't necessarily have much reason.Then, Mick's opportunity came, but in a way no one expected. Although the two children sometimes quarreled, their friendship grew day by day and they were inseparable.In fact, Mick is Johnny's first real friend.In fact, the reason is very simple, although Johnny himself can't explain it clearly.After Johnny's parents died when he was young, he was reluctant to reveal his true feelings.Now, he has completely broken with the past, and past experiences no longer have much influence on him.

Besides, Mick was admired by everyone.Like the rest of the island's inhabitants, he was physically strong--a physique honed by his tribe in generations of struggle against the sea.He was quick-witted, smart, and well-informed—things Johnny had never heard of.His faults were insignificant--he was reckless, big-talking, and often played tricks--which sometimes got him into trouble. He himself acted as Johnny's protector, as a big man protects a smaller friend, full of brotherhood.Children on this island are warm and friendly.He has four brothers, three sisters, dozens of uncles, aunts and aunts.Seeing the orphan who had run away from home, to the other side of the world, he could understand the loneliness his little friend felt.

Since Johnny mastered the basic skills of diving, he has been pestering Mick, asking him to take him to dive in the sea outside the coral reefs, so as to test his newly acquired skills between deep water and big fish.But Mick was not in a hurry.In some small things, Mick tends to be too hasty, but in big things, he is very patient.He understands that snorkeling near a small pool or a coral reef is not the same thing as exploring the depths of the ocean.There are countless dangers lurking in the vast sea, rapids and storms may occur at any time, sharks will suddenly attack - even for the most experienced divers, the sea is full of dangers.

Johnny finally gets an unexpected chance to explore the ocean, thanks to Suzie and Sputnik.Professor Kazan decided to release Suzie and Sputnik back to the sea and let him fend for himself.He never domesticated dolphins for more than a year, thinking it would be too cruel for them.Because dolphins are also social animals, they need to socialize with their own kind.Most of the dolphins he released back into the sea do not want to stay away from the island. They live in the waters near the island, and they can be called back at any time through underwater loudspeakers.Suzie and Sputnik, he believed, were no exception.

However, the two of them refused to leave.After the pool gate was opened, they swam a short distance down the channel leading to the sea and then swam back, as if afraid of being shut out of the pool door. "I know what the problem is," Mick said disapprovingly. "They get used to us feeding them, so they become lazy and don't want to catch fish by themselves." There may be some truth to Mick's words, but that's not quite the case.When Professor Kazan asked Johnny to swim out of the water, he didn't even use the communicator, and the two dolphins followed him into the sea.

After that, there were no more dolphins in the pool, and Johnny and Mick stopped swimming in the pool.At this time, Professor Kazan has a new plan, but no one knows what he wants to do.Every morning, right after their first lesson, Mick and Johnny went to meet two dolphins and swim down to the reef.They usually take Mick's surfboard, which can put the things they need to use, and put any fish they catch on it. About this surfboard, Mick told a thrilling story.He was sitting on this board once when a tiger shark tried to eat an 80-pound jellyfish he had harpooned.At the time, he was hanging the fish from the tail of the surfboard. "On the Great Barrier Reef, if you want to save your life," Meek said, "throw all the fish you catch into the sea. The sharks in Australia are the worst in the world—they eat three or four divers every year."

It's so important to know.Don't know when the shark will eat Mick's foam fiberglass surfboard... But with the protection of Suzie and Sputnik, there will be no shark attack.In fact, they never saw a shark.They felt very safe with Suzie and Sputnik for their company.This sense of security is rarely experienced by deep-sea divers.Sometimes, Aina and Paige also come to keep company.At one point, more than 50 dolphins even swam with them.As a result, a good thing turned into a bad thing, and the visibility was almost zero due to the abundance of dolphins in the water.But Johnny didn't want to press the "Go" button on the intercom for fear of hurting their feelings.

Johnny had dived countless times in the shallow pools in the coral reefs around the island, but diving in the deep sea was still a bit intimidating.Sometimes the water is so clear that one seems to be floating in the air, without any support, and can only see the jagged coral reefs 40 feet below, and there is nothing between himself and the coral reefs.He had to keep reminding himself that he was in the water and people couldn't fall. At the edge of the reef that surrounds the island, the coral walls sink vertically in some places.It's amazing to dive slowly along this coral wall.The variety of fish that live in the crevasses and alcoves is colorful and beautiful.When they are frightened, they scurry around, which is a spectacle.After the dives, Johnny used to go to the institute's reading room to look up reference books to learn the names of the fish that lived in the reef.However, most of these fish do not have common names, and some only have scientific names in Latin.Johnny didn't know how to pronounce the sounds at all.

The sea is full of huge isolated rocks, with sharp peaks that rise suddenly from the bottom of the sea and plunge into the water.This scene made Johnny think of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona.But these rocks and pinnacles were not caused by weathering, but grew into what they are now, the accumulation of the dead bodies of countless coral animals.Only the upper layer of shallow coral is still alive, the lower layer has become limestone, weighs several tons, and is 10 to 20 feet high.Sometimes, after a storm or shower, the underwater visibility is extremely low, and it is chilling to suddenly encounter these stone monsters during the dive.

There are often many caves in this coral rock, and various creatures live in the caves.It's best not to rush into the cave without knowing what kind of creatures are in the cave.There might be moray eels in it, always sticking out their hideous heads to bite; or there might be a family of squid, friendly but dangerous, with a protruding spine shaped like a tuft of turkey feathers, sharp and poisonous .If it is a large cave, there are often groupers in it.Some groupers are bigger than Johnny.But Johnny knew that no matter how big these fish were, there was no danger, and as soon as people approached them, they hurried away. In a short amount of time, Johnny was able to recognize various fish species and know where to find them.Groupers generally move around the caves where they live and never swim far.Johnny quickly made friends with several of them.There was a fish with a hook still embedded in its lower lip, and the line from the hook was still hanging outside.Although humans have suffered so much for it, it is still very friendly to Johnny, and even let Johnny come closer to stroke its body. Groupers, moray eels, and squid are the "residents" of the underwater world, and Johnny begins to get to know them and love them.But sometimes some uninvited guests swim from the deep sea.This is also the attraction of coral reefs. Every time you dive into the sea, you will have different experiences and discover new things.Even if you have dived dozens of times in some sea areas, you think you know everything, but there are still new discoveries every time. Sharks often come to coral reefs to feed and swim.Johnny will never forget his first encounter with a shark.He and Mick went out to sea an hour earlier than usual that day because they wanted to dive alone and didn't want Suzie and Sputnik as company, and Johnny hadn't noticed where the shark was coming from at all, only that it had popped up ahead.The shark's streamlined body is gray and extraordinarily smooth, like a torpedo.It swam towards Johnny slowly and noiselessly, with such awe-inspiring grace that you would never have guessed that such a graceful fish could be in any danger.When the shark was within 20 feet of Johnny, he started looking for Mick.When he saw that his friend had swam above him, he assessed the situation calmly, and at the same time, was ready to fire his underwater speargun at any time. Most sharks approach people out of curiosity, and this one was no exception.It squinted, looked Johnny up and down with a ruthless look - a look that was very different from the friendly and intelligent look of a dolphin - and then swam away about 10 meters away from Johnny.Johnny clearly saw the pilot fish swimming under the tip of the shark’s nose, while the crucian carp climbed onto the shark’s back—it was attached to the shark’s back with a suction cup, and the shark took it to swim everywhere—it is a special fish in the ocean. Animals that "free ride on". The only recourse for a diver when encountering a shark is to remain vigilant, leave it alone, and hope the shark ignores them.If you face sharks directly, they will swim away.But if you're scared and want to run - and if there's any fool who wants to run away from a shark, he doesn't deserve sympathy, because he's so stupid to do so.Sharks can effortlessly swim 30 miles an hour, often three times the speed of a naked diver. But even more fearsome than the sharks are the shoals of jews, which roam the reefs in swarms.For the first time, Johnny saw that he was surrounded by silver sea spears, their eyes full of hostility, and their protruding jaws seemed ready to attack at any time.To Johnny's relief, the surfboard was just above his head.These jesus are not big, at most 3 feet long.But they were swarming in groups, hundreds of them, forming a circular wall around Johnny.The Jesuses swam close to Johnny in a spiral pattern, trying to get a better look at him.Then the wall got tighter and tighter, so that Johnny couldn't even see the water, but all around him were shining silver-gray Jesus.He waved his arms and yelled, trying to drive them away, but it had no effect on Jesus, and they continued to watch Johnny carefully and leisurely.Suddenly, they disappeared into the blue water again. Johnny floated to the surface, grabbed the surfboard, and had an urgent conversation with Mick, who was leaning on the other end of the surfboard.He also often lowered his body to see if the "wolves" in the ocean had returned. "It's all right," Mick told Johnny not to worry. "Jesus is a coward. If you kill one, the others will all run away." After listening to Mick's words, Johnny was relieved.The second time he met Jesus, he was quite calm.Still, he always felt uncomfortable when these silver-gray predators swam up to him, like space fleets from alien worlds.Maybe, one day, one of the Jesuses will venture to bite you, and the others will swarm you... One of the difficulties of exploring coral reefs is that the area is too large.Most of the area is not suitable for snorkeling, and the area far away on the horizon is even less dared to care.Johnny often wishes to explore those uncharted territories, but he must conserve his strength, because there is still a long way to swim back.He often helps Mick to swim back with the surfboard. At least 100 pounds of fish caught are put on the surfboard. The long swim is very tiring.Johnny wondered if there was any other way?He thought of making a harness like a horse harness to put on a dolphin. Mick didn't have much hope for Johnny's idea, although he thought it would be a good idea if it worked out. "But it's hard," he said. "Dolphins are so streamlined and smooth that you can't put a harness on them." "I thought it would be possible to make a rubber collar to go over the front of the dolphin's flipper, and the rubber collar would have to be big and strong so that it would stay in place. Let's stop talking, let's do it now—of course, people might laugh at us. " Although the idea is determined, it is difficult to put it into practice.Everyone has to get to the bottom of it: what do they want with sponge rubber, harness rubber straps, nylon ropes, and all kinds of weird-shaped plastic plates?They had to tell the truth.Therefore, once the plan is implemented, it cannot be kept secret.When Johnny put the finished harness on Susie for the first time, a crowd of people came to watch, much to Johnny's embarrassment. He ignored the jeers and suggestions from the crowd, and put the harness on Suzie.Susie trusts Johnny completely, so she obediently lets Johnny fiddle with it.It knew that Johnny would never hurt it.It believed that this was a new game and it was happy to try it. The harness fits over the front of the dolphin's body and is secured over the flippers and dorsal fin.Johnny fastened the harness with straps, and was very careful not to let the straps cover the blowhole in the back of the dolphin's head--the hole the dolphin uses to breathe when it comes to the surface, and when it's submerged it's dead. closure. Johnny tied two nylon ropes to the harness and gave them a few tugs to see if they were secure.When everything seemed to be in place, he tied the other ends of the two nylon ropes to Mick's surfboard and climbed up himself. Suzie swam out from the bank, and the crowd erupted in cheers.Susie was very clever, and she understood Johnny's intentions before Johnny gave the order. Johnny let Suzie drag him for a hundred yards, then pressed the "left" and "right" buttons on the intercom, and Suzie did it quickly and without error.At this point, the surfboard was moving forward far faster than Johnny could swim, but it took very little effort for the dolphin. They swam straight to the depths of the sea.Johnny muttered to himself, "Let them take a good look!" He pressed the "fast" button, and with a slight jump the surfboard flew forward like an arrow.Johnny stepped back a little on the surfboard to balance the board on the water, and Suzie was now at full speed.Johnny felt excited and proud.He didn't know how fast the top speed would be if he went this way.Suzie can hit at least 30 mph when she's at full speed.Now, maybe 15-20 mph even with a surfboard towed and harnessed.It is commendable that a person can move forward so fast while lying flat on the water. Suddenly there was a "snap", the surfboard tilted to one side, and Johnny was thrown out.When he surfaced, the harness wasn't damaged, it just bounced off Suzie like a bottle cork. For the first trial, such minor technical issues were to be expected.It was a long swim back, and many might laugh at him, but Johnny was very satisfied.He has acquired a new ability to master the sea, and in this way he can roam freely in the vast expanse of coral reefs.At the same time, he also invented a new sport. One day in the future, thousands of people will get unlimited fun from this new sport. For dolphins, it will also be a lot of fun.