Any marine biologists want to comment on this?
PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Mon 20 Dec 2010 23:27
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Ilha Santa Luzia, Cabo Verde.
Last night we anchored in a deserted bay just a few
hundred meters off this uninhabited island which is a nature reserve. By
the light of the full moon we could see the long, sandy sweep of the beach.
Sleep came quickly after a late night snack, a glass of whisky and the
sound of the ocean swell washing up on the shore. This morning
after a cup of coffee and a radio check we were ready to swim.
Shmulik stayed on board while the three of us - Nirit, Gabriella and your your
blog writer - struck out for the shore. Up close the beach was even more
beautiful that it had appeared by moonlight. We traced the curious tracks of
crabs and big birds along the shore line, found other human footprints and gazed
up at the rock formations. But breakfast was calling us and we were soon
ready for the swim back.
We waded into the surf and struck out for the yacht.
After less than a minute I could hear Gabriella shouting that there was
something in the water. I stopped swimming and lifted my head. "There's
something here," she said with a rising note of panic in her voice. "Nirit
look out!." Then she screamed. The water near us had changed to a brown colour,
there were bubbles everywhere and a terrible smell, something similar to the
floor of a fish market in summer. The temperature was suspiciously higher than
it had been a few minutes before. I looked around to get my bearings and
realised we were, how can I put this? We were swimming in shit.
We quickly waded back to the shore while keeping
a lookout for the culprit. Gabriella had seen a huge dark shape above the
water near Nirit right after she first noticed the smell. The
water was still disturbed and there was a large patch of organic matter.
We spent a few minutes considering our situation but there was really no
option; we had to get back into the surf and swim to the yacht. I had
a scuba mask so went ahead to see if there was some creature lurking below
the waves, but the water was still murky with fecal matter and I couldn't see a
thing. We swam back so quickly Ian Thorpe couldn't have caught us. Back on board
we took turns to shower in the cockpit and tried to figure out what had
happened.
Had we disturbed a whale in his toilet? The water was
only ten meters deep and I have no idea if whales like to hang around in
shallows. I doubt if a dolphin could have had such an impressive bowel motion.
Earlier we had see a turtle on the surface but it also seems
unlikely that a medium size reptile is capable of making such a mess. Some
more research on the subject is called for next time we have unlimited web
access.
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