How Maxie and Hiroshi Helped Save the Sea

© Copyright Jeff Dooley, 2000

Not too long ago, a little Sea Otter grew up in the Bering Sea, just north of the Aleutian Islands, off the coast of Alaska.

She played with her brothers and sisters in the frigid, northern waters, and she fed on shellfish and sea urchins. Her name was Maxie.

One of her favorite pastimes was to float on the surface and watch the whales feed. Whole families of whales would encircle a school of small fish and then, one by one, shoot up through the middle of the circle, breaching the surface of the water with a roar, mouths brimming with fish.

Little Maxie thought about the whales and how much fish they ate. Then she thought, "there must be a great abundance of fish in the sea for the whales to eat so many of them every day."

Then Maxie thought about other sea animals who also eat fish, like the sea lions and seals who darted about the rocky reefs playing their games of hide and seek and tag. "Yes," she thought, "there must be ever so many fish in the sea."

More and more often Maxie also saw something else. She would see great, floating mountains that would sometimes drag large mouths behind them and eat huge quantities of fish, many times the amount the whales would take.

Still, she thought, "the sea is so vast and fish so plentiful, even the great floating mountains will never go hungry."

Maxie once asked her Grandfather how there could be so many fish in the sea that the whales and the seals and the great floating mountains did not eat them all up. Her grandfather said, "follow me," and he took her across the sea floor to a place where huge, green curtains of kelp grew from the bottom of the sea to the very surface. The kelp curtains went on for as far as Maxie could see. Her Grandfather said, "this is where the fish raise their families; it is the home of the fish where new baby fish are always being born in great numbers." Suddenly Maxie understood why the whales, seals, and the great floating mountains did not eat up all the fish.

She asked her Grandfather, "Grandfather, are the numbers of fish growing up in the kelp beds about the same as the numbers of fish being eaten by the whales, sea lions, seals, and the great mountains?" Her Grandfather smiled at her and said, "Yes, Maxie, that is correct, if the sea was not in balance this way, then the fish would disappear. If that happened what do you think would happen to the whales, the seals, and the great floating mountains?" She thought for a moment and replied, "Grandpa they would all go away too!" He nodded.

Then Maxie's Grandfather said something else. He said, "We also help keep the sea in balance and the fish plentiful." Maxie looked puzzled. He continued, "we eat the sea urchins from the ocean floor, and this makes room for the kelp beds to take root and grow so tall. If sea urchins were allowed to spread everywhere, there would be no kelp beds and no homes for the fish to raise their large families."

Maxie brightened, "so we help keep the sea in balance by eating sea urchins?" "Yes," her Grandfather replied, as the two of them scooped up a spiny treat off the sea floor.

One day, as Maxie went out to play in the cold water of the Bering Sea, she felt something wasn't right. The sea was dark and smelled different to her. As she scooted around the rocky reefs she suddenly saw and heard some of her brothers and sisters crying out and swimming rapidly toward the protection of the undersea rocks. They were crying and weeping that a large family of Orcas had just attacked them. One of their Uncles had been eaten up in one bite!

Maxie and the others swam back to their families and asked, "why are the Orcas attacking us; they never did that before." Everyone was confused and scared. Nobody had an answer. Otters knew that orcas always ate seals, never bothering with the otters who were so small and fast. But now, for some reason, orcas were beginning to consider the little sea otters as the tastiest of treats.

Maxie decided she would find out what was behind this scary change that was making the sea more dangerous for otters. Since even her Grandfather didn't know why this was happening, she set out on a journey to ask as many other animals as she could in hopes of piecing together an answer. She shivered at the thought that the first animal she should ask was the orca herself.

Maxie, swam up into the icy waters where the orcas lived. She hid behind rocks and ice until she saw a single, old orca that didn't look too hungry.

She came up at a distance and said, "hello orca, I have a question to ask you, if you would agree to listen and not eat me up." Maxie was very nervous as the old orca turned its head toward her. "I am not hungry, little otter, I am going to die soon, but I will try to answer your question if I can." Maxie came closer and said, "I am sorry you are going to die soon; many of my family have died recently. The were eaten by orcas. Why are you orcas starting to eat us up when you never fed on us before?"

The old orca went up to the surface for a breath. He replied, "we have fallen upon hard times recently. The sea lions and seals we prefer to eat have become scarce, and rather than go hungry and starve, we have begun eating otters, even though you are harder to catch and offer less meat."

Maxie thought for a moment. She asked the orca, "do you know why the sea lions and seals have become less plentiful?" The orca answered, "No, we aren't so interested in asking why, we will simply adapt to our new diet." This made Maxie shudder a bit, since she knew it was a diet that included her. She thanked the old orca and swam off back in the direction of her family. She needed to talk with her grandfather.

She wanted to ask her Grandfather if the sea was suddenly falling out of balance. She wondered, "if the sea is in balance, why would the sea lions and seals go away?"

When she returned to her home she was startled to see so few otters, but the otters she did see were much fatter than she remembered them. "Hmm," she thought darkly, "fatter otters are slower otters and will make better treats for orcas."

She found her grandfather and saw that his face was lined with worry and sadness. "Many of our family have disappeared, taken by the orca," he said. She came to him and cried a little with him over dear ones lost. Then she asked, "Grandfather, is the sea falling out of balance?" He answered with a nod, "Yes, it is and I don't know why. The sea is a little warmer now, and the shrimp, crab, and herring are gone, there are more salmon and cod and with them come sharks who also eat seals." Then he added, "and many of us who remain are helping to throw the sea even further out of balance." She asked, "How, Grandfather?"

He said that while the otters were increasingly worried about becoming orca food, they also saw a benefit to the change. One of the grandfather otters had bellowed loudly that these were in fact the best of times for otters. He said, "stop crying for those who will never return, embrace the bounty that is now yours and learn to live with the danger." He added enthusiastically, "and now that the kelp beds are thinning out, the danger of being surprised by orcas is less because we can see them coming! Surely this is the dawn of a golden age for otters," he trumpeted.

Maxie asked her grandfather, "what bounty is he talking about?" Her Grandfather replied, "as our numbers have decreased the sea urchins have blossomed in great expanses across the sea bottom, since there are fewer of us eating them. So, with more sea urchins to eat, many otters think that we are better off. He shook his head sadly. "They don't understand that the thinning of the kelp beds, as the sea urchins take over the sea bottom is far from wonderful; it is hastening the dawn of the day they themselves will be eaten by an orca! "Why is that," asked Maxie. Her grandfather looked at her and said, "think about what I have taught you about the balance of the sea—the connection between fish, seals, orcas, otters, sea urchins, and kelp—and you will understand." She strained her thoughts but soon became confused, unable to remember how all the animals and other parts of the sea were connected.

Maxie's impatience to understand why the sea was falling out of balance grew. She decided she didn't like being with the other otters who thought things were turning out so well. And besides, she was still heartbroken over the loss of so many uncles, aunts, and cousins.

"Maybe I should go ask the seals why they are going away," thought Maxie. The very next morning she swam off in search of the islands where the great colonies of seals had thrived. On her way across the open ocean once again she saw large numbers of the great floating mountains. She saw that the mouths they dragged behind them were full of vast numbers of codfish and pollock. She swam away, careful not to be swept up by one of them.

When Maxie surfaced off the rocky shore she was stunned at what she saw. She expected to see huge throngs of seals of all ages lounging on the rocks and swimming and diving just offshore. Instead, there was a small clutch of older seals on an outcropping, staring sadly out to the sea.

Maxie came closer. She introduced herself to them and asked, "where is everyone, where are the little babies? One of the seals bent over and said, "most of those who had strength enough have migrated to another part of the ocean, where the fish we prefer are more plentiful." The old seal continued, "some time ago the herring and smelt fish we depend on became scarce, and we didn't have enough to eat. Over time, we lost our fat, and had a harder time surviving in the cold. Also, we had fewer babies, and some of those were lost to sharks. At the same time the orcas were becoming more dangerous. It used to be that orcas ate only the sick and very old seals, and that helped keep our remaining numbers strong and full of life. But as there were increasingly fewer of us, well; you can imagine what happened." "Yes!" cried out Maxie, "they began eating us otters!"

The seals were too old and tired to show much sympathy for the plight of Maxie and her fellow otters. When Maxie asked them why the herring fish they liked had become scarce they just looked at her and shrugged that they didn't know. As Maxie floated back out to sea, they continued to sit on the rocks, their thin forms dimly outlined and finally enveloped by the grey fog that surrounded the island.

Just as confused as ever, Maxie headed back across the sea. What she had figured out was only a partial explanation. She reasoned that orcas were eating more otters because there were fewer sea lions and seals available. In turn, she had learned that the seals were in decline due to a lack of fish and increased predation. She also knew, from her own observation, that the kelp beds were shrinking in size, and that sea urchins were taking over, much to the delight of many of her fellow otters.

Then it hit her: She remembered the day her Grandfather had taken her to see the kelp beds, and she remembered what he had shown her. The kelp beds were fish breeding grounds! If at the same time, the herring were to disappear for some reason, and larger fish were being taken out of the sea in vast quantities by the great floating mountains, and fish breeding grounds were being destroyed by encroaching sea urchins, this could be enough to throw the sea out of balance!

She raced back toward home to tell her Grandfather. But when she came into the undersea valley where she'd grown up she was shocked to see only broken seashells. There was not a single otter anywhere. No sign of any of her family members could she find. She noticed, however, that there was a great deal of mud suspended in the water, as though something had recently happened to greatly disturb the sea floor. As she adjusted her eyes further into the gloom she picked out a shape receeding into the depths. It was that of an orca slowly moving into deeper water.

Maxie floated above her family home in shock and disbelief. She swam one way, then the other, not knowing at all what she was doing. She felt great grief and cried for her father, mother, brothers and sisters, and most of all for her grandfather. But she was angry too. Angry that nobody had listened to her grandfather, angry that something had thrown the sea out of balance so far that it made her an orphan of the sea.

Soon Maxie realized that she too would be eaten by an orca if she remained exposed in the middle of the sea. So she retreated to the rocky shore of an island nearby and grew determined to do something. If she couldn't help her own family perhaps she could help another group of otters.

She swam from island to island until she found a small gathering of otters resting under a great undersea outcropping of rocks. They were very fat and welcomed her with friendly faces. She cried out, "we must try to do something to save the kelp beds so the fish will have somewhere to raise their families, and we must find some way of getting the great floating mountains to eat less fish. The sea is out of balance and we are in great danger of being eaten by orcas!" One of the fat otters replied, "yes we know there is danger, but food has never been so easy for us to find. And as the sea urchins grow closer to us they are also thinning out the kelp beds so that, even though we're fatter and slower now, we can see the orcas coming from farther away." "No," he finished, "these are actually better times for us otters; stay here with us and enjoy our good fortune!"

Maxie thanked the otters for their hospitality and sadly swam away. She thought, "they don't realize that the very thing that makes them happy now is leading them to disaster later on."

Maxie decided that she was not going to give up trying to halt the sea from sliding further out of balance. As she made her way back into the open ocean, not really knowing where to go next, she saw one of the great floating mountains. But this one was not moving across the waves. It was standing still in the water. It had no great mouth flung out behind gathering up whole schools of fish. Instead, there was a small object bobbing in the water near the larger vessel. Even more interesting to Maxie was the fact that over the side of the small object leaned a head with two bright eyes, looking right at her. She'd never seen an animal like this one. It had no fur except at the top, and it didn't look like a sea creature. It made a noise in her direction and Maxie quickly dipped out of sight beneath the water.

She decided not to leave, hoping that orcas were afraid of the great floating mountains. She swam around the smaller object, which she could see was attached to the larger one by some kind of strand, like a length of kelp but without leaves. Meanwhile the head had dropped out of sight within the smaller object.

After a while Maxie was startled to see a figure suddenly appear directly in front of her out of the very water itself. She backed away fearfully. The shape made a noise that she didn't exactly hear but that she could understand. Attached to the apparition, along with four things that looked like legs, was the head and bright eyes she'd seen looking at her from the floating object.

The bright eyes said, "hello little otter. What's your name?" Maxie replied, "It's Maxie; who are you?" The apparition replied, "I'm Hiroshi. I'm a human. My father owns this fishing boat and we're stopped to make some repairs." "Repairs?" asked Maxie. "Yes," our fishing boat broke down and we can't get back home to Japan until she's fixed." Maxie didn't understand a thing Hiroshi said, but she liked him. She asked, "how did you just appear in front of me like that?" Hiroshi laughed, "it's something I can do when I fall asleep. I can dream in a way that allows us to meet and talk to each other. We're in my dream right now."

Maxie knew what a dream was. She sometimes felt like she was playing with her brothers and sisters again at times when she was asleep. Then she would wake up and feel the chill of the ocean and the sadness of being alone. "I don't like dreams very much," said Maxie. "I only have sad ones." "Why do you have sad dreams, Maxie," asked Hiroshi, from within his dream. "Because I have lost my whole family and all my friends and my grandfather to the orcas!" she blurted, tears flowing into the salty seawater.

"Why has that happened," asked Hiroshi. Maxie hastily told him about what she'd learned; about how a breakdown in the warming sea had led from scarce fish to declining seals, leading in turn to orcas eating otters and back around to the depletion of the kelp beds. This last result, she concluded, is making it all the more likely that things would just get progressively worse.

Hiroshi whistled, "wow." "Let me see if I understand you. You are saying that my father and I and all the other fishing boats are helping to throw the sea out of balance?"

"That would be correct, so far as I can tell," replied Maxie. Suddenly the boy disappeared from the water. He awoke with a start in the bottom of his dinghy thinking, "wow, what a nightmare!"

Back on board the larger boat, Hiroshi went to his father. He said, "father, I have heard you say that fishing is getting harder. What do you mean by that?" His father looked at him with eyes deeply crinkled and lined from a lifetime as a mariner. He replied, "yes son, it is getting harder to take our customary catch. Over the past twenty years so many more boats have joined us here, out to compete with us for the best fish."

"So, father," Hiroshi continued, "does that mean we are all taking too many fish out of the sea?" The man's face grew dark. "What would you have me do, Hiroshi? Sell my boat and become a tailor? I know only the life of the sea. It is a hard life, but it is the only way I can support our family."

Hiroshi paused, aware that his father was becoming upset. After a moment Hiroshi said, "father, what if all the boats together are taking more fish from the sea than the sea can put back?" His father shook his head impatiently, interrupting the boy, "yes! we are taking more fish. If it's too much, I don't know, but I do know what I'm doing to ensure that we'll get our share despite what the other boats do." "What's that," asked Hiroshi, almost afraid of the answer he saw coming. "Get bigger nets!" thundered his father. "I've spent almost all our profits from last year on the newest nets available. They are lighter, stronger, and expand underwater to twice the size of our old nets. With these new nets we'll catch more fish, and let the other boats take what's left!"

Hiroshi asked softly, "father, what if the other boats get bigger nets too?" But his father had grown tired of the conversation and shooed the boy out of his cabin. Hiroshi walked to the side of the ship and looked with a glum expression into the ocean depths. He felt anxious and confused. He feared his father wasn't making sense, and that made him feel even more uneasy.

That night Hiroshi dreamed. He found Maxie eating shellfish near a sunken freighter. He told her, "I talked to my father about what you told me and he said that, yes, there are more boats competing for fewer fish." A little embarrassed, he told her his father's solution was to buy bigger nets.

They both sat quietly in Hiroshi's dream. Then Hiroshi asked, "what if there was a way for mariners like us to survive while taking altogether fewer fish from the sea? What if we could leave enough fish for the seals to come back, allowing the orcas to have their preferred food, and the otters to be plentiful enough to keep the sea urchins from destroying the kelp beds where new fish are born?" He continued, "we might get fewer fish each year, but if we keep going the way we're going, we'll all be out of business anyway, and probably for good."

Maxie, because she was an otter, didn't really understand how difficult a challenge Hiroshi was contemplating. She merely said, "well, that would be an improvement over what's happening now." Then Hiroshi woke up.

From that time on Hiroshi became concerned about his family business and took more of an interest in marine biology, ecology, and international law. As he grew into a young man he spoke out about the dangers of greedy competition leading to overfishing, and he studied oceanic research that validated trends of declining fish and seal populations, changing orca feeding habits, and the creeping depletion of the kelp bed fish habitats.

He learned also that the story was more complicated than the one he and Maxie had first pictured. His scientific studies showed him that the ocean had warmed slightly, enough to rapidly kill the plankton on which shrimp and small sea animals fed. This in turn led to the decline of these species on which the herring and smelt fish depended, triggering their collapse. Like dominoes falling, one on top of the other, the disaster spread. Seals and Sea lions who preferred the herring and smelt for their high fat content went into decline as these fish became scarce. Warmer water attracted larger fish such as salmon and cod that brought with them their shark predators who also ate seals. Orcas, finding fewer larger marine mammals, began to eat otters, and as the otters declined the sea urchins flourished, destroying the fish-producing kelp beds. On top of all this, overfishing the waters of the Bering Sea further depleted fish populations.

Few people in his industry listened to him, but there were others elsewhere in the world who shared his concerns. Finally, many years later, Hiroshi joined with others to bring about international laws that helped reduce the pollution that was helping to warm the sea. He also gathered support among mariners of all nations to establish and observe global fishing limits so that fish populations could rebound gradually and re-establish their important place in the sea's web of life.

One day, as a very old man, Hiroshi was resting beside the sea on a rocky beach. He slipped into slumber and immediately saw his old friend Maxie. He smiled at her and asked her why he had dreamed so many years without finding her. She smiled back and said, "dear Hiroshi, you have done well. You have helped the sea begin to renew itself. The sea is very slowly regaining balance, though it will be a new balance, not like the old one which we both now know could never happen again."

She continued softly, "perhaps you can guess why you've suddenly found me again after all these years." There was a moment's pause while she waited for him to understand. "The orcas took me years ago, and I had to wait for you to dream a new kind of dream for us to be together again."