My Little Marine Biologist

I grew up frightened to swim in ocean water over my head because of the movie Jaws.  Jaws was filmed on Martha's Vineyard off of the coast of Cape Cod and because the beaches in the movie looked like our beaches, it was very easy to assume that a rogue shark could appear in the same manner.  It's funny to look back and think about that fear considering there were never any shark sightings in the waters off of Massachusetts when I was growing up.  It wasn't until I was in my twenties that a great white shark made news by hanging around in the Falmouth area. (I believe it was Falmouth.)



Nowadays, great white sharks have made the Cape Cod waters a feeding ground due to the overabundance of seals.  The inevitable happened last week when a man was bitten by a shark in Truro.  He is expected to survive the attack.

The first time I visited Hawaii, I read anything and everything I could get my hands on for planning, absorbing all the information about sharks.  Learning why sharks attack and how to avoid becoming victim of a shark attack took some of that irrational childhood fear away.  With the girls, instead of instilling a fear of sharks, we've made sure to educate them on shark safety.  They have a lot of questions and, lately, with all the shark sightings, there has been quite a bit of discussion on sharks.



A few weeks ago at the library, Emily checked out a couple of books on sharks and other ocean creatures.  We're lucky in that our library has a decent selection of nonfiction books for kids.  When we visit the library, which is about every other week in the summer, I find a seat and let the girls browse through the titles.  This is how Emily found those books.  She spent Friday afternoon reading this book about sharks.



Emily shared different parts of the book she found interesting with me.  As I was making dinner, she told me she may want to be a marine biologist when she grows up.  (If you have kids who are 10-12 years old and curious and/or fascinated with sharks, check out that book.)

Last weekend, we visited Coast Guard Beach again.  It wasn't exactly beach weather, but sometimes those are the best times to visit the beach.  The girls and I went on an extended nature walk, heading off to the right side of the beach.  Not many beach-goers venture down that far so it was fairly deserted.  (I did not have to photoshop out any people this time.) We spotted so many seals in the water - at least 40.  And, of course, later that week, the beach was closed to swimming due to shark sightings.





A note on my camera lens:  I was using my 105mm lens for a different perspective.  I like to change up my lens usage for this reason.  I cropped the above photo so you can see the detail that's retained despite the crop.  (If curious, I had my f stop set at 4.5.)








Seals!






Summer freckles.























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