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A CONVERSATION
About LIFE in
the OCEAN by Gail Perryman
illustrated by Linda Aryiss
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ISBN 0-15-323457-1
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A CONVERSATION
About LIFE in
the OCEAN
by Gail Perryman
illustrated by Linda Aryiss
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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tank
mask
fins
regulator
weights
wetsuit
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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: 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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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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