TOUCHING A CLOWN FISH

{written on Wednesday, March 05, 2008}

He stands on the cusp of manhood. Looking across the horizon, he sees possibilities emerging as silhouettes. They reveal bright lights and deep colors, coming in and out of soft focus. He hears a constant stream of melodies, harmonies, and pulsing rhythms.

Imagine a parallel universe, where he can choose several paths and fully live out the potential of each one. Each choice extends its hand. He reaches out and steps thru to the other side, at least to try a taste.

What does the future hold in store? What will stick? Is there a sign? Can I throw joss sticks? LOL, I'm not so superstitious... Is there a more rational approach - a contemporary twist - to numerology, to calm my hopeful heart? Yes. I searched for his name on the internet.

He is a statistician, who wrote The Book on interpreting case studies. He is at once both surgeon and violinist. He is an internationally renown, award-winning undersea photographer.

What a pleasure to look through the breathtaking underwater and marine life photos of this amazing diver-photographer. Online you can see page after page of his brilliant hi-resolution under-the-sea photos. But the small photo shown below brings me to the subject of this blog: Touching a Clown Fish.

I was lucky to be sent twice on business to Cairns, Queensland, Australia. On the 1st trip, our "US delegation" went scuba diving and snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef. It was while scuba diving that I met face-to-face with a little clown fish. She looked just like this photo, and was suspended with her back side into live sea coral just like this photo.

I looked into her eyes, and she into my mask, just inches apart. We stared at each other for some time. Then I reached out my index finger and gently stroked her body on her right side several times, from behind her head towards the tail. She didn't move and simply continued to look at me with a slight flinch. I guess she might have thought, "Oh please don't hurt me." or "Oh no, not another tourist!"

The purpose of my business trip was related to law enforcement of marine fisheries and habitat protection. I later "confessed" my harassment activity to a special agent on the trip. After all, one element of our mission is to allow dolphins to live free in the wild, and to protect dolphins from human contact in the US (such as humans feeding dolphins or swimming together). Here I was stroking a clown fish in a foreign country!

I did regret the touching, but fell in love with the contemplative and passive clown fish. They are the cutest fish and I can see why they are used affectionately in movies, stuffed animals, and beach towels, etc. (I've bought them all.)