Thursday, August 7, 2008

What would you have to do to get people to either respect you, admire you, or think you're a terrifyingly gorgeous creature?. . .



The answer is. . . become a shark (or perhaps a lion or one of those beautiful Bengal or Siberian tigers). This week my kids and I have been learning more about the ocean and its creatures. From Monday on though, the focus has kind of leaned toward Sharks. What could be more interesting than the top predator of the ocean?
I spent my whole childhood in the Bay Area of California. Our family's favorite beach was called Natural Bridges. It was a few miles north of Santa Cruz. Naturally, we grew up being warned about sharks. As kids we would walk along the edge of the beach and peer into the little tide pools searching for sea creatures. Crabs, tiny eels, sea anemones, sea urchins, hermit crabs, sometimes a fish of some sort, sea stars, etc. It was so fun. One time we even found a huge seal washed up on the rocks. It was rotting and we would walk by it with our noses plugged. My brother wanted to try to extract one of it's teeth to put on a necklace. Too difficult. Anyway, I wanted to be a marine biologist for a long time until I realized that I would never be able to get into potentially shark infested waters. The thought was enough to steer me in another direction. They were ALWAYS my favorite animal though. Not just any shark though. THE Great White Shark. I have a great fear and a great fascination for them.




Istanbul isn't the best place to learn about sharks. The only ones they have in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara are dogfish which are considered sharks. We got to go to the mall yesterday and look at two blacktip sharks they have in an aquarium there. They were small ones but they were beautiful.



The kids enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.

2 comments:

Hillary said...

I LOVE sharks!

Sonja said...

Wow! Sharks in the mall in Istanbul? Who knew?

When I was a young girl living in SF, I dreamed about being a marine biologist and discovering mermaids. :)

We drove by your house the other day and Claire asked, "How come I don't play with Atticus any more?" Then I had to explain and was sad and missing you.