Jagger twisted around and returned to the front of the seamobile, responding to the sound, and keeping an eye trained on both Dylan and me.
Dylan typed something onto the screen and additional clicks emanated from the speaker. Jagger answered again, leading me to ever-increasing levels of confusion. “Dylan, what’s going on?”
“I’m speaking with Jagger. I type what I want to say and the computer translates it into the appropriate cetacean language. I always have to allow for errors in different dialects, but usually, it’s pretty close.”
“Are you saying the seamobile has a computer-coded translator that can decipher dolphin communication?”
“Yes, of course. Don’t you have the technology on land for marine interspecies communication?”
I stared at Dylan’s back for a long time with an eyebrow raised. “No…we don’t.”
Shrugging, Dylan proceeded to talk to Jagger for some time until he began to lag behind his pod. Not too long afterward, both Jagger and the other dolphins disappeared from view, making the ocean feel emptier. A few sea lions darted past, heading behind us towards shore. I watched their fleeting figures with awe, seeing how they glided through the water as if it paved a pathway just for them. No water resistance slowed them at all. They twisted, turned, and meandered through the ocean effortlessly.
“Allie, turn around, this is incredible.”
I looked straight ahead past Dylan’s shoulder to see something coming into view, but it was so far away that the deep blue of the water masked everything but its outline. As both it and we continued at the same speed towards one another, it materialized into something highly recognizable—a great white shark.
I froze for a moment, terrified of what it could to do us, but then remembered we were enclosed in the safety of the seamobile, although it appeared as if we, too, were part of the ocean.
The shark swam with a methodic sweep of his tail back and forth. Watching him closely, I noticed his entire body undulated along with his tail in an s-shaped motion. About eight feet or so from the seamobile, it veered slightly to the right to avoid a collision.
Transfixed, I watched in awe as it slowly passed us by. One ebony eye slightly smaller than my closed fist peered at me through the invisible barrier. Gill slits half the length of my entire body filled my view. Each time they flared out, the pinkish-red gill rakers showed, so close, I could have reached out and touched them if it weren’t for the seamobile.
Fascinated, I twisted around as far as the confined space of the seamobile allowed, as the dark gray body continued to float past. Though I’d seen sharks before on the immersion TV, nothing prepared me for the huge bulk of this one. I’m not the best person at guessing length and distance, but this shark had to be at least seventeen or eighteen feet long. Regardless of its size, it swam with a grace I couldn’t deny, passing us by without a care in the world.
“That was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?”
As the shark faded into the shimmering blue, I turned to see Dylan also craning his neck to observe the retreating shark. “Yes, it was. I can’t believe he didn’t pay any attention to us. No head bump into our seamobile…no trying to bite it…it’s like we weren’t even here to him.”
“She,” corrected Dylan.
“How do you know?”
“No claspers, so it’s a female.”
Not knowing what claspers were, I let it go, as the sea gradually came back to life with other creatures. All sorts of fish dotted the ocean in every direction. More dolphins arrived in a relatively large pod, but Dylan identified them as common dolphins instead of the bottlenose ones we’d seen earlier. A lonely turtle, possibly the one I’d seen a while ago, swam far off in the distance.
Suddenly, I felt a jerk as the seamobile made a sharp turn.
“Whoa, I have to take it off autopilot.” Dylan jerked the handlebars to the right. The seamobile now floated parallel to the edge of the continental slope.
“Why, what is it?” But as I asked the question, a shadow from the right encircled us. The enormity of it encompassed my entire field of view, leaving only a sliver of the edge of the continental shelf visible beneath my feet. The animal was dark in coloration, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the dim light or its natural color. “What is that?” I wondered.
“Nothing to worry about. It’s just a blue whale.” Dylan turned around to face me. “Consider yourself lucky. I’ve lived under the sea my entire life and this is only the second one I’ve ever seen.”
I had heard blue whales were the largest single organism on the planet that had ever lived, but being so close to one was unbelievable. It was so surreal, almost magical. An eye larger than our heads came up right beside the seamobile and examined us. Through the serene gaze of the whale, tranquility flooded through my veins down into my soul. I felt a connection that I found hard to put into words, but it gave me a peace that I’d never felt before. It had to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
As it gracefully continued to glide through the water past us, Dylan directed our little pod away from it to ensure its tail wouldn’t accidently swipe the seamobile on its way past.
“I think that whale is larger than average. I bet you it’s over one hundred feet long.”
I barely heard Dylan’s comment as I continued to watch the blue whale slowly swimming away into the blue beyond.
Dylan re-engaged autopilot and we continued. The seamobile began to dive, descending off the edge of the continental slope and into the darkness.
