Friday 8 April 2011

Thoughts on evolution

I stood on the seabed and stared up at the rounded face of stone that towered above me.I paced around it and measured approximately 65 feet in circumference.'Phew' I thought almost 22 feet in diameter I pulled our shot weight alongside of it and using it as a counterbalance I inflated my suit and rose slowly off the bottom until my helmet was level with the top of the boulder. Now using our shot weight as an anchor I remained there slightly buoyant and said
"George, read my depth gauge," over the diver phone.
"Checking the depth it is," George answered.
"you are 35 feet deep at the moment." I let my air spill and eased slowly back down to the bottom and lay down flat beside the boulder.
"Ok George read it again"
"You are now 51 feet deep" George answered.
"Right George make a note of this."
"Give me a minute until I grab a pen and paper."
Still lying on the bottom I marvelled at the clarity of the sea water now that we were clear of Leith Docks and their silt coming from the water of Leith river.
Close to my helmet and anchored to a small flat stone was a sea anemone.I watched its waving tentacles and its ever changing hues of rich colour coming and going in an attractive deadly display and I also watched its own little lure fish as they swam fearlessly in and around the mass of the seeking tentacles.
A tiny minnow of a fish appeared in view and with fins vibrating very fast, it hovered above the anemone watching the little lure fish sporting themselves around the inside of the miniature technicolour jungle. With a flick of its tail the little fish turned and looked straight in my front light at me. Its tiny eyes goggled fearlessly into my own.

"Ready to write,fire away," said George.
"It is a blue whinstone boulder around 20 odd feet in diameter and 13 feet high so you can rest assured George the Digger won't be lifting this one either, mark it down on the chart as the biggest one so far."
"Got that Bob will do," George answered.
My attention returned to the sea anemone. The tiny fish had lost interest in me and once more flicked around to watch the little lure fish joyfully rubbing side on through the waving tentacles.It must have been too much for the poor little fish for he suddenly darted in to join the fun and was instantly grabbed by first one tentacle, then another and slowly but surely many of them wrapped around him and carried him inwards towards the maw of the waiting mouth.

I shook my head at the tragic little drama I had just witnessed and wondered how evolution ever managed to bring about a relationship such as a carnivorous fish eating plant which would never ever harm its own little lure fish.'

This is an excerpt from my second book 'Last of the Hard Hat Divers 2'

4 comments:

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