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A CONVERSATION
About LIFE in
the OCEAN by Gail Perryman
illustrated by Linda Aryiss
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Photo Credits: Cover, M. Mesglesi/Southern Stock/PictureQuest; title, Ken Usami/PhotoDisc;


p. 3, M. Mesglesi/Southern Stock/PictureQuest; p. 7(inset), Phototake/PictureQuest;
p. 7, Kip F. Evans/Mountains and Sea Images; p. 8, Larry Lipsky/Bruce Coleman, Inc.;
p. 10, Stuart Westmorland/Index Stock Imagery/PictureQuest; p. 13, Kip F. Evans/Mountains
and Sea Images; p. 15, Associated Press; p. 16, Kevin McDonnell/Photo 20-20/PictureQuest

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Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 0-15-323457-1

Ordering Options
ISBN 0-15-325521-8 (Grade 6 On-Level Collection)
ISBN 0-15-327528-6 (package of 5)

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A CONVERSATION
About LIFE in
the OCEAN

by Gail Perryman
illustrated by Linda Aryiss

Orlando Boston Dallas Chicago San Diego


Visit The Learning Site!
www.harcourtschool.com
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Take a deep breath, and dive into this interview with veteran
underwater photographer Keith Turner and his thirteen-year-old son,
James. James was born on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and
describes learning to dive at an early age. In this interview Keith
and James share some of their adventures filming nature documen-
taries in Hawaii. By the end of the interview, you’ll want to take the
plunge yourself and start exploring life in the ocean!
INTERVIEWER: James, what is your first memory of exploring the
ocean?
JAMES: Swimming in Hanauma Bay when I was about five years
old. Hanauma Bay on Oahu is this beautiful crescent–shaped
bay. The water there is calm. You can reach the coral reef
right off the beach, and it’s absolutely loaded with every kind
of fish you’d ever want to see in your life. You can buy little
fish-food pellets and swim around, snorkel, or scuba dive and
let these fish feed right from your hand. I remember the fish
nibbling at my fingers.
INTERVIEWER: Can you describe some of the fish?
JAMES: Well, there’s a type of trigger-fish with a snout like a pig
called humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua’a. Those are really cool.
The biggest they get is about ten inches. Some of the most
colorful fish are the yellow tangs. Yellow tangs are relatively
small fish, about five inches long; they are pure yellow. There
are parrot fish, which can be really fierce! They’ve got very
sharp beaks and make a lot of weird birdlike noises. I also
learned that in the night they make this Aaak! Aaak! sound
and spit out a layer of mucus that covers their whole body. It
kills off their smell so eels can’t find them.

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INTERVIEWER: Keith, how did you introduce James to snorkeling


and scuba diving?
KEITH: We started him out in the bathtub with a mask and
snorkel so he could learn to breathe underwater. He’d stay in
there forever with his toy submarine searching for things on
the bottom of the tub. Then we took him to the ocean with
a mask and snorkel, no fins. Then he graduated to fins.

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tank

mask

fins

regulator

weights
wetsuit

JAMES: My first snorkel filled up with water when I dove. At the


surface, I’d have to blow out really hard to clear it before I
could start breathing. My lungs weren’t strong enough to
expel all of the water. I’d breathe in and choke, so my dad got
me a new type of snorkel, which is standard now. It has an
exhaust valve. My dad said the valve would block most of the
water from coming into the tube, and I could clear it by just
blowing lightly. I thought he meant that once you blew the
water out you could breathe underwater! I dove down and
held onto a rock, thinking I had all the time in the world. I
blew out then took a deep breath…and swallowed about a
gallon of seawater! I rushed up to the surface and cried,
“Dad! You said it wouldn’t do this!” I learned. I learned.
INTERVIEWER: How old were you when you first used scuba
equipment?

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JAMES: About six, I think. I was too little to have a tank strapped
to my back. It was bigger than I was, so my dad strapped the
tank to my boogie board. I would put the regulator in my
mouth, put my mask on, go underwater, and swim around,
dragging the boogie board with me. It was a lot of fun.
KEITH: That’s where he learned to clear his mask and his regula-
tor. The regulator controls air flow.
JAMES: Technically, you are supposed to wait to get your junior
certification until you are twelve or thirteen years old, but
since my dad was a master and instructor, I got started early.
INTERVIEWER: What about when you wanted to explore deeper?
What did you need to do to dive farther underwater?
JAMES: The first thing we did was figure out how much weight
I would need. My dad taught me how to surface dive; you
bend at the waist and kick your legs to propel yourself down.
I went under and picked up a rock. If I floated up with the
rock, it was too light; if I sank, it was too heavy. If I stayed
neutral in the water, it was just right. I think the “just right”
rock was about 2 pounds. So then I went back to shore and
put on a two-pound weight belt.
KEITH: Your body has natural buoyancy; it has to do with your
body’s volume in relation to your weight. If you are heavy
without much volume, you will sink; if you are light with a
lot of volume, you will float. As a diver, you can put on addi-
tional equipment that adds to your volume or adds to your
weight. The optimal state you are trying to achieve is neutral
buoyancy at around 10 to 15 feet. That means you will float
at that depth without sinking or rising.

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INTERVIEWER: What is the deepest you have dived, James?


JAMES: Forty-five feet.
KEITH: Once we determined his neutral buoyancy, we did some
exercises. James experienced the sensation of running out of
air, so he wouldn’t panic if that happened. Under a controlled
situation, I would turn the valve of his gauge to shut off his
air. Then I would share air with him from my regulator. He
took to it right away; now he’s very adept.
INTERVIEWER: So after you got some experience under your belt,
James, what was one of your favorite diving trips?
JAMES: One of the best times I had was in the Philippines, at a
place called Eel Point Resort, a fairly famous dive site. There’s
a reef pool, with sharks about four feet long. We got to swim
right alongside them. Then I decided to rest and watch all
the other marine life around me. I stopped beside a big rock.
I looked at the rock, and it looked back! It was a gigantic
grouper—a huge fish about three feet long. It was staring
right into my eyes! I was so startled that I flew out of the
pool and announced that there were monsters down there!
My heart was pounding. It was fun!
KEITH: He went right back down to look at it again.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like to swim with the sharks?
JAMES: The sharks were so cool. You could feel the power radiat-
ing out of them. I’m not kidding. They acknowledge that
you are there, but they don’t do anything. They don’t attack
or investigate you; they just keep swimming. My dad had
done a program on sharks; I have a big book on them—but

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it never occurred to me that they would be that interesting.


INTERVIEWER: Were you given any instruction regarding
approaching or touching the sharks?
JAMES: Well, shark skin is made of denticles, which are basically
like little razors. The denticles, which are shaped like trian-
gles, are tiny scales you can’t really see that line the whole of
the shark’s body. When sharks swim, they literally slice
through the water. If you touch their skin, you’ll cut your
fingers.
KEITH: Polynesians once used sharkskin to make saws. There are
places you can go, though, where they hand-feed sharks and
you can touch the shark as it swims by you. In one direction,
the skin is razor-sharp; in the other direction, the skin is
smooth and won’t hurt you. However, you can’t swim up to a
shark that you are not feeding and touch it; it will swim away
from you. You need to respect the territory of the animal.
When we are filming them, we let the sharks come to us. We
are careful not to box them in and always give them an
escape route.

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INTERVIEWER: Did your dad provide any general guidelines for


encountering creatures underwater?
JAMES: Be calm, don’t startle them, and show them you have
power but won’t use it unless attacked.
KEITH: What James is saying is pretty much standard procedure.
If you encounter an animal that is potentially harmful to
you, stand your ground. In the ocean we are relatively large
creatures; a six-foot shark is used to eating a ten-inch fish.
You would have to encounter something very large to be
viewed as prey. Very large animals reside in the deepest
waters, far from recreational diving areas. The most common
injuries to divers are getting cut on something sharp, like a
shell or the reef; being stung by jellyfish; or sticking a hand
in a hole and being bitten by an eel. A good general rule is, if
you approach a creature that is smaller than you are, and it
doesn’t retreat, it must have a very good defense mechanism.
The Portuguese man-of-war, for example, abounds in the
Hawaiian waters. Even when they wash up on the shore, they
can still zap you. Their stinger has a mechanical trigger.

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INTERVIEWER: James, did you ever get a chance to work with your
dad on one of the nature programs he filmed for television?
JAMES: My dad got to work on this very cool educational televi-
sion program. He was filming at a research laboratory where
they had dolphins.
KEITH: My son has had the benefit of going behind the scenes to
experience things that other kids would never get to see. We
were filming at Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in
Honolulu, which is not open to the public. While we were
scouting the location for a television series, James got the
opportunity to work with the dolphins.
JAMES: First, I got to hand-feed the dolphins, and then I helped
with the research the scientists were doing.
KEITH: The scientists there, Dr. Lou Herman and Dr. Adam
Pack, were investigating dolphin language and dolphin intel-
ligence. They had installed a television in the side of the
dolphins’ tank and set up a remote camera in another room.
Using an extensive series of hand signals they had developed
to communicate with these dolphins, they conducted an
experiment. The trainers performed the hand signals for the
remote camera; the dolphins responded to the image of the
trainers on the television screen, just as they would if the
trainers were at the side of the pool.
JAMES: I asked the trainers if I could perform some hand signals
in front of the camera.
KEITH: They weren’t sure James could do it at first. He was only
eight at the time. They taught him some signals, and he
caught on very quickly. The dolphins watched him doing

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the hand signals on the screen and responded to his com-


mands! It was a proud moment for me as a dad.
INTERVIEWER: Going back to your own first experiences, when
and how did you get into diving?
KEITH: I was an inland boy. I grew up in Georgia and Texas
before I came to Hawaii. I had been in Hawaii a short time,
working as a sales representative. One day I asked one of the
other sales reps what was fun to do around here. He told me
about snorkeling and recommended I go to Hanauma Bay,
where I later took my son for his first dive. I went by myself,
jumped in the water, and was just blown away. From that
moment forward, my life completely changed.
INTERVIEWER: Can you describe how you felt?
KEITH: I remember exactly. I dithered around in the shallow
water, where the water wasn’t quite as clear and there were a
lot of people, so I thought I’d go outside the reef, into deeper
water. I managed to get out over the reef and swam along in
about twenty-five feet of water. There was this school of
fish—sergeant majors. They were black and light yellow; they
were just sitting in the water in a column. A wave would roll
in, the water would move them, and they would move en
masse. Then they would move back with the surge, as a unit
of 300 individuals. I was mesmerized! Once I returned to
shore, I thought, I’ve got to have more! I signed up for a
scuba course, became a certified diver, and then an instructor.

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INTERVIEWER: What introductory classes are available for young


people who want to try scuba diving?
KEITH: Diving is very easy to learn; the equipment is extremely
sophisticated now and very safe. Training techniques have
been refined. Many resorts now offer an introductory scuba
course for people on vacation. You have to be at least twelve
years old. Instructors will take you in a pool first and intro-
duce you to the equipment; they’ll demonstrate how to
breathe from the regulator, how the mask should fit, and how
to expel water from your mask and regulator. Once you are
comfortable in the pool, they will take you out into the
ocean. You enter the shallow water, kneel down and breathe
underwater, then swim out to progressively deeper water up
to ten or twelve feet. Alternatively, you can go out on a boat
to a maximum depth of about twenty-five feet. The whole
idea is to do it in a safe manner.

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INTERVIEWER: Are opportunities available for those who might be


intrigued by ocean exploration as a career?
KEITH: The ocean environment, although it is being extremely
stressed right now by development and pollution, is still one
of the least explored frontiers on our planet. There are many
opportunities to do research, as well as commercial and sal-
vage diving and treasure diving. When I was employed as a
commercial diver, the maximum depth was 500 feet; you
could only stay down for very limited amounts of time. With
the new equipment, such as Jim suits and Deep Rovers,
which are primarily like submarines that you wear, much
more of the deep ocean is available for exploration.
INTERVIEWER: What are some
ways to start exploring this
frontier before getting into
the water?
JAMES: There’s a tourist sub
that operates off Oahu. It
is a long submarine with
large portals on the sides
and two rows of benches
facing them. There’s room
enough to stand up in
there. It takes you out to
explore shipwrecks on the
ocean floor.

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INTERVIEWER: How deep does this tourist sub go?


KEITH: Down to 150 feet.
JAMES: Another way to learn more would be to go to your local
aquarium and talk to the people who work there. They can
probably answer a lot of your questions about what to expect.
INTERVIEWER: Keith, before we conclude this interview, do you
have a story to share about one of your most memorable
encounters underwater?
KEITH: In the ocean one of the most magnificent sights is a
whale. Not just because of their enormous size but also the
grace with which they move. With minor movements of a
fluke or a pectoral fin, they can dramatically change direc-
tion. The mothers are very protective of the juveniles; if you
get too close, the mother will put her pectoral fin around her
calf and pull it to her side. I’ve also noticed while filming
them in the water that whales are very aware of where you
are; as they pass you, they will deliberately avoid hitting you
with their tails or fins. They are very gentle, graceful crea-
tures.
INTERVIEWER: Can you hear whales communicating underwater?
KEITH: Yes, that’s the most amazing thing. Water has extraordi-
nary acoustic characteristics. Salt water is 900 times denser
than air, so it transmits sound better. Any kind of sound in
the water not only travels farther, but also doesn't dissipate as
quickly as it does in the air. As a result, whales can talk to
each other over great distances. When you are diving, you
can hear the voices of whales even if you can’t see them.
However, if they are close to you, you can tell because

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their bass notes actually vibrate your body. The other unique
characteristic of sound underwater is that since it travels
faster, it seems to reach both your ears at the same time, no
matter what direction it is coming from. So when you hear a
whale song, it is as if you are surrounded by the sound.
INTERVIEWER: What does a whale song sound like?
KEITH: Whales produce an amazing diversity of sounds. The most
remarkable comparison I can think of is a recording of whale
song sped up to the frequency of birdsong; whales sound
precisely like birds. Their songs can be long and mournful,
high-pitched and squeaky, with staccato notes or undulating
wavelike sounds. They also make short grunts, whistles, and
chirps.

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INTERVIEWER: Did you ever


meet a whale up close?
KEITH: Yes, I did. I accom-
panied a tourist group of
scuba divers off Waikiki. A
baby humpback whale,
about fifteen to eighteen feet long, started playing around
our boat. It was leaping, breaching, and splashing down—
and we were cheering it on! The mother whale became
concerned; she steered the calf away from the surface. I
decided to do a free dive with a snorkel to get a closer look. I
dropped down right next to her and was able to touch her. I
was so enraptured to feel the life in her, that I forgot I was
holding my breath! When I came to my senses, I pushed off
the bottom. She swam under me, just missing me with her
giant tail. It was a long swim back, but I remained calm, and
I made it.
INTERVIEWER: Any parting words from a veteran underwater pho-
tographer to future ocean explorers?
KEITH: Yes. Don’t just sit in front of the television watching
nature programs; get out and explore for yourself!
INTERVIEWER: What about you, James? Do you have any advice
for first-time divers?
JAMES: You will be okay. There are no scary monsters. It’s a great
feeling swimming with the great diversity of life underwater.

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Think and Respond


1 Does using the form of an interview to relay
factual information about diving make the subject
more interesting for the reader? How?
2 Give an example of one fact and one opinion that
James or Keith provide about diving.
3 List three main ideas included in this interview.
4 How do you know from reading this interview what
characteristics and skills a person needs to
become a successful underwater photographer?
5 Compare and contrast this selection with another
nonfiction story you have read in which people are
interviewed about their lives.
6 Would you like to explore the ocean and have
adventures like the ones James and Keith Turner
describe? Why or why not?

A Deeper Investigation Choose one of


the marine animals named in this book and
conduct research on its characteristics and
behavior. Present your findings to the class.

School-Home Connection Interview


someone at home about his or her first-time
experiences exploring an unfamiliar environment. Have
the person describe both how the experience felt and
what he or she learned.

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