PORPOISE GHOST THE 1 CHAPTER Asia Wilde put her field journal into her backpack then climbed up the companionway to the deck of the Ghost Porpoise to find her little brother Ring He was standing at the bow using a set of mounted high-powered binoculars to scan the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico sandwiched between two other spotters I saw two bottlenose dolphins he said without taking his eyes from the binoculars A sea turtle and a humpback whale which I’m going to sketch when I get the time Ring and Asia recorded their experiences in field notebooks Asia wrote hers in words Ring sketched his in No vaquita Asia asked pictures Nope it clicking There is definitely one of them around here We heard Ring looked at her What do you mean by clicking
2 Echolocation I was listening on sonar Vaquitas don’t sing like dolphins and whales they make clicking sounds to communicate Trisha the sonar operator told me that only one vaquita makes the echolocation clicks while the others if there are others remain silent She called the one clicking the PIC porpoise in charge She thinks it’s a lone vaquita and probably a known one meaning it’s been documented with photographs I hope she’s wrong Ring was used to his sister’s long-winded answers to simple questions She couldn’t help herself because of her encyclopedic memory She never forgot anything she had learned Ring said Well we’ve seen a lot of animals but not a vaquita I’m not surprised with only ten left in the world and I hear they’re hard to spot Asia said The dorsal fin is small and dark against the dark water It’s no wonder they’re called ghost porpoises Ring rubbed the bridge of his nose I have a headache from staring at the water Or maybe I’m hungry Wanna spell me Sure Asia said and took his place Ring made his way toward the stern The sea was calm and the ship was barely pitching but he had to hold on to the rail to steady himself after two hours staring at the glaring ocean The spotter next to him had puked twice The VAQUITA
