In language arts class we made books about endangered species,
Earlier in the year, we read a book called Squirm by Carl Hiaasen, and I won’t spoil too much, but it’s about a boy named Billy who helps his father find someone who wanted to kill an endangered Florida panther, which is illegal, by the way. After we read it we started to research endangered animals and write a story about it! Then we worked with local artist Peg Gignoux to make it into more of a picture book! Finally after we made the pictures for the picture book we added the story to it!
You can read mine here! (it’s kind of long)
OTTER
July 12th, 1854.
As I was being chased farther into the depths of the Pacific Ocean, I tried to see where the shark had gone, but I did not want to risk my life to check if I was being chased. I continue to swim as fast as I can until I hear a loud, echoing CRACK! I turned for a second to see the shark’s tail trapped in a large rock. I swam as fast as I could away until I reached the rocky coastal waters I used to call home.
13 months ago, my older brother Rocky was taken by hunters and had all his fur taken from him. My mother found his dead corpse two weeks later. She smelled his scent and swam to him, only to find his body with no fur, tail, or head. She couldn’t believe that her child had been killed and thrown back in the ocean. It felt like it had been years since we had seen him, so I didn’t remember him that well, but I still knew he was my brother. I had 3 other siblings. My mother had only one baby at a time. When Rocky & Shelly were born, Coral was the youngest and the fastest of us all. Shelly was the second born. She was the oldest after Rocky, lastly there’s Salty. I never met my father. He left after mating with my mother & found another otter to mate with. I technically have 4 different fathers, but they never stayed.
My family & I, along with many other otters, enjoy sleeping as a group in the water so that no one otter will get swept away by the tides. One night, it was especially difficult for us all to stay together. Our paws were slipping from each other, but we had to stick together. The waves roared like lions & tried to tear us apart, but we stayed strong because if any otter got swept away, their family would go looking for them & die because of sharks! Maybe not, but I still don’t want anyone to get swept away or die. Then there was one night I will always remember: it was when my callous cousins & their parents had a fight with the rest of the raft. They wanted to sleep with their own families alone because they wanted “privacy”. We never saw them again. They might have drifted away, been eaten, or both.
It was 1 hour before the incident, when we all went hunting for some fish. My siblings & I had a race to see who could catch one the fastest. Coral & I were teamed together because she was too little to be alone, & she would wander off because she saw a rock, yes, a rock. I caught a glimpse of shimmery scales like a mirror that might have been a salmon, but Coral swam towards it, & it swam away. We could have caught it! I had only caught two fish before now, & my mother had helped me track them down. I saw another fish & told Coral not to scare it away, & sneakily swam towards it when I heard a loud CRUNCH behind me. I turned around to see a shark swimming towards my family very fast.
I swam as fast as I could towards my family to warn them, but when they turned around, CRUNCH. I could taste blood in the water; it was everywhere, & none of us knew where it came from until we saw Salty. He had a massive hole in his back where the shark had bitten him & the shark was nowhere to be seen. I swam to Salty & tried to grab him before he was gone forever, but the ocean pulled him down like a rope, & he sank to the cold & lonely ocean floor. I couldn’t let go of him yet, not yet.
I tried to chase his body & bring it back up, but he already sank to the cold, lifeless sea floor. I came back up to the surface, feeling defeated & sad, when I heard a loud squeak to my left. I saw some of my friends swimming away from something coming towards them, & a chill went down my spine when I saw what it was. I squeaked loudly, trying to evacuate everyone, but no one heard me. Then, what I feared most was about to happen in front of my eyes: all the sea otters in this area would die, & there was no escape.
We can’t escape even if we swam as fast as we could; sharks are silent & fast, faster than almost all sea otters. I had never believed this would ever happen, but it did. One of the sharks swam forward with a greedy look. I need to try to plan an escape for all of us but it’s impossible. We are surrounded by 3 sharks, & they are all very fast. Just then, one of the sharks surfaced behind my friends & bit their heads off. Its a horrifying thing to see in front of your eyes. Then the other 2 sharks saw the others & started swimming towards them, but I heard a loud shriek from Coral. She must be terrified of what’s happening, but it wasn’t a scared shriek; it was a pain shriek, & her back was sliced open with a fin.
So much blood was coming out of her back at once, that she passed out. I saw a shark coming towards her, and, out of fear of losing another sibling, I grabbed a sharp rock & threw it at the shark, but since we were underwater, it didn’t reach its target. It ate her whole, & saw Shelly trying to swim away from them, but it went for her, & then mother came from behind the shark & bit its tail. The shark whipped around its head & saw mother. It twisted & turned & whipped its tail. mother hit a huge rock & tried to play dead for us to escape the sharks. The shark thought the mother was already dead & went for her, but then she started swimming towards the other sharks to gain their attention, too. With her last bit of energy, she made it to where all of them could see her & twirled around to get their attention. They all went for her, & I could see them ripping her to pieces as we got farther & farther.
We escaped & found a cave far from where the sharks were. It looked abandoned & there were pieces of crab inside the cave. I climbed up to the cave to investigate it with Shelly. It was damp & cold, & it was nothing like home but it was all we had. In the morning I noticed that the crab pieces were gone & Shelly was in an entirely different spot than the night before. I tried to find a good big fish to bring back, but I could only catch one tiny fish. I came back with my fish, disappointed that I couldn’t catch anything bigger for the both of us, but a fish is a fish, & we need as many as we can right now. I tried to give the disappointing fish to Shelly because she looked super tired & hungry, but she didn’t take it & said I needed it more because I am still growing.
She has been getting skinnier these past days & she hasn’t gone hunting for herself. She is tired all the time & sleeping most of the day, which is very strange cause she loves the water & would go swimming in the morning almost every day. Shelly keeps rejecting the fish I have been catching & bringing back for her & me. She started vomiting a lot & it’s gotten so bad that it’s blood she’s throwing up. I woke up today to find out she has passed away due to Acanthocephala, a type of parasite that kills 14% of children otters. It must have been inside the moldy crab legs that were here when we got here. Her body has begun to get infested with bugs, so I did what she would have wanted me to do, let her body sink down to the bottom of the ocean floor instead of getting eaten by bugs. Now I am alone. Sad & lonely, I go for a swim when I come across a shark, heading straight towards me.
January 12th, 2023,
Great grandma bubbles would have loved seeing this, it is illegal to hunt us & humans are helping our population grow back! I really want to go above & say thank you to the humans, but mother says there are still people out there who hunt us illegally. Ever since great grandma has passed due to old age, things haven’t been as exciting. She would tell us all these stories that her mother told her about escaping sharks & living on her own. I hope that in the near future, places will be full of otters, & it’s going to happen, believe it!
