ELAINE OLLIVIERRE 20106

CRUISING KIDS’ CORNER

The Rainy Day

by Lee Kessell

“It's so boring when it rains,” sighed Maizy, the little yellow butterfly fish.
“I wish we could do something on days like this.”

“That’s not the way of things,” rebuked her mother. “On wet days no sun
breaks through the clouds and it is as dangerous to venture out from the
reef as it is at night. Look about you, all the reef fish are sheltering under
the ledges and even our friends the sea anemones are hiding with their ten-
tacles curled in.”

“Well I don’t see why all of my friends can’t get together under a ledge and
play games. We would be perfectly safe.”

This conversation was taking place in the sunny Caribbean, just off the
pretty mountainous island of St. Lucia after the start of an unusual week of
wet weather for that time of year. Maizy and her friends were members of the
community of fish and sea creatures of Cutie Cove, a sheltered little bay near
the north of the island.

Maizy’s mother thought about the idea and, although she was against
any change in the order of things, she couldn't really find a good reason
to object.

“Come on, Mummy, what harm can happen to us?”

“Well, you'll have to go out to find your friends and bring them all here, and
that doesn’t seem very wise to me.”

“But I'll stay under the ledges all the way and nothing can attack me.”

So Maizy got her way and off she swam. Pretty soon she had all of her
friends — Angie the Angelfish, Greta the French Grunt, Porky the Porkfish,
Dimity the Damselfish, Serge the Sergeant Major, Bret the Brown Chromis,
Candy the pink-striped Basslet and Princess the Parrotfish — under the
ledge in sight of her mother. The first thing they did as members of the Rainy
Day Club was to swear allegiance to the death. Of course Maizy and her
friends never expected to put this oath to the test but it was exciting to pre-
tend that mortal danger lurked under every ledge.

The members of the Rainy Day Club didn’t mind the rain at all because
they met every day and had lots of fun playing Hide and Seek in and out of
the little crevices and ledges, Tag the Tail and 1 Spy With My Little Eye and
they held competitions to see who could tell the most scary story.

As Maizy’s mother always seemed to take charge of organizing whatever had
to be done in the community, all the other mothers looked up to her. So even
if they didn’t approve of the Rainy Day Club with their little children rushing
about all over the reef, they accepted Mrs. Butterflyfish’s judgment.

 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY PETIT ST. VINCENT RESORT

by Elaine Ollivierre

In last month’s Compass, you might have read that divers in Carriacou were
thrilled to see longlure frogfish in the reefs off Carriacou. This small, rather ugly
fish will also have no home if the coral reefs of the Caribbean disappear.

Members of the frogfish family (related to angler fish) are found worldwide but
the longlure is only found in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean. It is very
difficult to find, especially in a reef area covered with sponges. The longlure frog-
fish was given ascientificname, Antennarius multiocellatus, in 1837. Multiocellatus
means “many eye-like spots” and refers to the pattern of black spots all over the
longlure’s body. These spots and the general colouring of the frogfish (yellow —
brown — reddish) makes the fish look exactly like a sponge so it can camouflage
itself very well.

The frogfish does not have scales exactly, but warty prickles all over the skin.
It has tiny eyes and a big mouth, which turns upward; but what makes it very
unusual is the first spine of the dorsal fin. It is much longer than the other spines
and looks like an antenna or fishing rod on the front of the frogfish’s head. It even
has a structure on the end that looks like bait! When the longlure is ready for
dinner, it waits on the reef until another fish swims by, attracted by the wiggly
lure. Then the frogfish grabs its prey. It is thought to be the fastest creature on
Earth as it sucks in the fish at such high speeds that it is difficult to see it hap-

Club «

 

So it was that after six days of solid rain, the seventh began dull and over-
cast and the children gathered as usual and began their games while Mrs.
Butterflyfish went to visit a sick friend next door. But this was not to be a
rainy day; gradually the clouds began to thin and then the sun came out and
bathed the entire cove in brilliant yellow light. All the fish children darted out
rom the ledge with shrieks of joy, swimming in circles over the tawny sand
orgetting to stay near the safety of the reef.

When Mrs. Butterflyfish saw that the sun had come out she jumped with
alarm and swam back home to make sure that the children were playing
safely — but the children had gone and she didn’t know that a hungry
Banded Jawfish had grabbed Candy the pink-striped Basslet and was trying
to pull her down into his den! Fortunately for Candy, the Jawfish was having
trouble as she was too long to fit down his burrow, unlike stubby Porky the
Porkfish who would have been no trouble, but the members of the Rainy Day
Club took fright, forgetting their pledge to stand together until the death and
swam about blindly in a panic.

Without hesitation Mrs. Butterflyfish darted out into the bright sunlight,
gathered all the children together and just as she was about to take them
back to the safety of the ledge, Serge the Sergeant Major blurted out: “But
the Jawfish has Candy in his mouth!”

Poor Mrs. Butterflyfish turned around with a terrible feeling of doom.
“But we can save Candy if we all work together,” continued Serge. “That
big Jawfish hasn't got Candy down into his burrow yet because he has to
widen the entrance with his tail, so if we hurry we can attack together and
nip at his head until he lets her go.”

Mrs. Butterflyfish instantly agreed, and all the children followed Serge and
began nipping at the head and mouth of the Jawfish who let go of Candy in
a hurry and disappeared down his burrow.

Mrs. Butterflyfish took the children and a very frightened Candy back to
the safety of the ledge and after hugging each other with relief, Maizy’s
mother put an end to The Rainy Day Club then and there.

The moral of this story is: Don’t mess with Mother Nature’s rules; she
knows what's best for her children.

 

 

 

THE END

pen! It usually eats fish but it will also eat crabs and shrimp. If the fish aren’t
biting, the longlure moves to a better hunting ground. It doesn’t always swim. I
Instead, it can use its pectoral and pelvic fins (which look like hands) to “walk”
across the reef or the sea floor.

 

 

The longlure frogfish grows to about five inches (12cm) long. When the female
produces eggs, she becomes very fat and swims up to the surface of the sea.
There, she releases a mass of sticky eggs so that the much smaller male, who
follows closely behind her, can fertilize them. The fertilized eggs can then float
away before they become food for other cannibalistic frogfish.

WORD PUZZLE
How many five-letter words can you make from the letters of the word
MULTIOCELLATUS? No plurals allowed.

Answer on page 19 I