The Neglected Reality

The water was full of still creatures. Nobody moved or nobody made any sound. Everything; the place, the inhabitants even the air and water stood still. There was an awkward and suffocating silence in that world of mysterious lives.

When I first went for scuba diving, I was about six, and I still remember how my granny used to hold my hand and teach me about the different organisms we encountered on our way under the sea. Scuba diving had always fascinated me ever since. My grandmother was an adventurous lady who spent her time mostly with the oceans and its creatures. Yes, she did research on oceanography. I was always delighted by the way she taught me about marine organisms and their importance in our ecosystem. Unlike my mom who had sea sickness and was allergic to salinity, I had a keen interest in marine life which made me end up in a organization who work to preserve endangered marine organisms.

From the past two decades I had seen drastic changes in the habitat as well as the habitants of the marine world.

Back in those days in my childhood days, I used to lay down on beaches and enjoy watching the sea animals play in the sunshine both on the beach as well as on the sea.

Today, I decided to dive into the depths of a sea near our workplace in the earliest of dawn. I had to find whales. Officially, whales along with many other marine organisms had already been declared extinct in this 22nd Century; but I had a urge to go and see for myself the truth. I have been exploring the sea for a week now and today was my due date to find something that might give us a hope to be a worthy being.

I swam deeper into the darkness. Where it had been lovely creatures roaming around a few decades ago, now all I discovered were heaps of skeletons and garbage containing millions of plastic stuff which seemed to have dominated the world of underwater.

Although I had been wearing a special costume to protect my body from the pollution, the terrible odour still made me sick and I felt like vomiting.

From plastic bags to cans, I searched for any sort of life and suddenly I heard a sound. I went near the source and almost jumped with excitement to see a little baby whale but when I went nearer, I almost went through a cardiac arrest. There, the infant was struggling for life. It choked on a plastic bag. I rushed to its rescue and it let out a moan of pain. I took it to the surface. Our team immediately operated on the infant. After a hard struggle for about two hours the baby whale gave up the fight. We all stood there, disheartened with grief and regret as we had become the reason to end the source where life had started in the first place.