‘You’re up early, Joe.’ Angela’s head popped round the side of a noticeboard on which she had been writing.
‘I was hot,’ said Joe shyly. ‘And I never sleep late. Aesha does – Dad says she can sleep for England.’
‘You’re like me,’ said Angela. ‘I hate to see the day being wasted. Talking of which, how would you like to go on a boat trip today? I thought we could take you all around the Marine Protected Areas and the mangroves.’
Joe nodded eagerly. ‘Will we go on one of those banca things?’
Angela laughed. ‘Yes, we’ll go on one of those banca things.’
‘What exactly are mangroves?’ he asked.
‘Ah, now there’s a subject,’ Angela replied. ‘Basically, they’re dense areas of low trees and shrubs that have adapted to grow in saltwater. The trees and shrubs have lots of roots that act as props to support them and they form a tangled mass, mostly underwater, in which all sorts of marine creatures live. Without them, we’d lose most of our fish and many other creatures as well.’
Joe took in what she was saying. ‘Fish stocks are low all over the world, aren’t they?’ he asked. He had heard something about it on the news back home, but found it difficult to believe that, given the size of the world’s oceans, there could be any shortage.
‘Overfishing goes on everywhere,’ Angela agreed. ‘The human population is exploding, and more and more people are eating fish because it’s a healthy food, but the poor old fish can’t reproduce quickly enough.’
Joe made up his mind there and then that he would stop being fussy about fish and eat every last morsel that was put on his plate from that point onwards.
Chapter 7
Joe was impatient for his family to be up and about when he returned to the staff house.
‘Hurry up,’ he growled at Aesha. ‘Half the day’s gone already and everyone else has been up for hours.’
‘Just because you’ve got ants in your pants, it doesn’t mean we all have to get up at the crack of dawn,’ said Aesha.
‘What’s the point of staying in bed all day when you’re in a different country,’ Joe countered. ‘We might never come here again.’
‘It’s only eight o’clock, Joe,’ said Aesha. ‘It’s not as if we’re missing out on anything.’
‘You’ve missed out on helping to get the banca ready. I helped put the canopy up and load the bottles of water on board.’
Aesha looked unimpressed, but Joe had felt very important working alongside Angela and Rey while the rest of his family slept. They had talked to him about the seahorse project and how vital it was to keep the local population involved in protecting the species.
‘Rey used to collect and sell seahorses,’ Angela told him, ‘but when he realised their numbers were dropping disastrously, he began to work with us to find alternative ways for local people to earn an income.’
Rey nodded enthusiastically. ‘Now, my wife, she makes baskets, and I work with Ma’am Angela to stop the dynamite and save the coral.’
‘Did you know that some people use dynamite to blast fish out of the water?’ Joe asked his parents as they headed towards the banca at last.
Binti nodded. ‘It’s a way of catching a lot of fish quickly.’
‘But how?’ demanded Aesha. ‘Doesn’t it blow the fish to pieces?’
Joe was delighted to have caught her attention. ‘It blows some of them to pieces and it kills the coral reef, but it makes it easy to collect the fish that aren’t destroyed from the surface of the water,’ he explained.
‘I can’t believe people can be so stupid.’ Aesha frowned.
‘It’s very short-sighted,’ said Binti. ‘Once a reef is damaged, it takes a very long time to recover, and all the creatures that depend upon it as well. The short-term gain for dynamite fishermen results in long-term problems for everyone else. But you can’t always blame them – not if all they’re trying to do is feed their children. I’d probably do the same if there were no other option.’
‘I can’t quite see you going that far.’ Peter linked arms with her as they walked over the sand.
They reached the banca. Joe felt a sense of ownership as they helped push it into the water, and he made sure to climb on board first in order to claim the seat he wanted.
‘Will it be cooler away from land?’ Aesha asked, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead.
‘Are you suffering?’ Angela smiled sympathetically. ‘It is horribly sticky today, isn’t it? There should be a bit of a breeze over the sea, but we won’t be travelling fast enough to create our own. You can always slip over the side into the water to cool off.’
‘Not now!’ Joe butted in, anxious to be on his way.
‘Of course not now.’ Aesha scowled at him.
At that very moment Rey managed to coax the engine into life and the boat began to move forward, gradually picking up speed.
‘Hold on to your hats then – we’re off!’ called Angela above the noise of the engine.
This is so exciting! thought Joe as the boat bumped up and down on the waves. I hope we see some dolphins.
‘Will we see any dolphins?’ he asked his father, who was sitting on the bench opposite, fiddling with his camera, which prompted Joe to bring his own camera out.
‘I’d love to swim with dolphins,’ said Aesha. ‘That would be so cool.’
‘You’re such a good swimmer, they’d
