Predators I Have Known - Alan Dean Foster [7]
A pounding, rolling, all-day journey found us approximately a hundred miles from the mainland, rocking in the lee of the small, isolated, and uninhabited North Neptune Islands. Once clear of Port Lincoln, we sighted not a single other craft, not even on the Nenad’s radar. We were bobbing in the body of cold water known as the Great Australian Bight, and the next substantial chunk of dry land due south of our position was Antarctica. The weather was windy, overcast, and cold, most unusual for this part of the world in mid-January. Knowing it was exceptional was small consolation to those of us who had traveled halfway around the world in hopes of clear skies and warm sunshine.
Despite the stabilizers that had been added for the benefit of visiting landlubbers like ourselves, the Nenad bobbed and weaved like Lee Marvin’s horse in Cat Ballou. Dr. Fritsch was immediately seasick, and would remain wretchedly so for the majority of the voyage. He spent a great deal of time in his bunk, stomaching (if one dare visualize) his unhappy situation in stoic silence. Others endured the rough conditions to greater or lesser degree. Renate Reith endured the discomfort in despondent German. My knowledge of the language not being up to fully comprehending the full extent of her suffering, the perfectly bilingual Fritsch helpfully translated the details of her ongoing misery for the rest of us.
Soothing our souls as well as our stomachs, Silvy extracted gourmet meals from hidden closets and drawers. She appeared to use recipes, but I’m convinced magic was involved. With varying degrees of enthusiasm, the non-sufferers among us wolfed down these wondrous meals three times a day. A huge cooler designed to hold ice to preserve the regular shrimp catch overflowed with iced sodas and beer. As the only teetotaler aboard, the others were delighted by my disinterest, which left that much more XXXX and Foster’s Lager for them. Alas, there was nothing comparable in consumables for which to trade my allotted ration of grog.
The North Neptune Islands consist of several small, craggy, granitic scabs protruding not far above the chilly waves. Like most of the islands out in the bight, they are barren and seldom visited. The larger of the two provided some shelter for our rocking craft as well as a safe haven for an assortment of wandering seabirds, determined low scrub, and hundreds if not thousands of barking, moaning, wheezing, bellowing, stinking New Zealand fur seals. It was the calving season, and the great slick wet arc of black boulder-strewn shoreline was a jumbled rookery crammed with squalling pups the size of overfed poodles.
We went ashore to photograph and observe, able to approach the unconcerned and rarely visited animals to within touching distance, discovering that the pups will nip at your fingers if you’re not careful. They are utterly captivating little critters. Their presence in considerable numbers was also the reason the Nenad had anchored offshore their nursery.
Pinnipeds are the great white’s favorite prey, and the younger and less experienced, the easier they are to catch. This feeding preference holds true wherever great whites are to be found, from Australia to South Africa to the shores of central California.
Back on board, Rodney, Jack Bellamy, and Andrew were busily dishing out the chum. Consisting of blood, fish oil, and fish parts, the chum, or shark lure, was compiled according to a special recipe of Rodney’s own devising. I expected the gory concoction to reek to high heaven, but, oddly, it hardly smelled at all. This lack of pungency might have been a side benefit of the cool weather. Ladled or hosed overboard, the dark slick was swiftly carried out to the open sea by the steady current. The reaction a shark has to crossing a chum line approximates that of a blond forty-year-old multiple divorcée encountering the naive male heir to a modest fortune. It garners immediate attention.
But great whites are wary, unpredictable creatures. The pre-expedition literature repeatedly warned that