by Debbie Dadey
THE STORY OF ALANNA
By Echo Reef
Alanna lived in ancient times, before Trident City was even built. She had a beautiful voice and often tricked human sailors into following her. One sailor happened to see her when his ship sank. He fell in love with her. Alanna saved him, but after that she never teased sailors again. It is believed she fell in love with the sailor, and that is what made her seek to pass the merfolk law to never taunt human sailors.
THE STORY OF MERLIN
By Rocky Ridge
Merlin may or may not have been a merperson. He lived with the merfolk for many years and showed them much magic. He may have used his magic to become a merman. Magic means making something extraordinary happen. Merlin could wave a wand when he was hungry and make a school of fish appear. He could talk with sharks and is believed to be the only merman to ever ride a great white.
MY REPORT ON KILLER WHALES
By Rocky Ridge
Killer whales do not normally eat seaweed school reports, but it is possible. Usually they eat fish, squid, birds, seals, and even other whales. They are big and black and white.
THE STORY OF ALANNA
By Pearl Swamp
I HAD TO DO IT OVER!
Many years ago, before Trident City was even built, there was a beautiful mermaid named Alanna. Everything about her was beautiful, even her voice, and she liked to tease human sailors into following her. One sailor happened to see her when he fell out of his ship. He loved her. Alanna saved him, but after that she never teased sailors again. She fell in love with the sailor and that is what made her pass a law to never taunt human sailors, which, if you ask me, is a stupid law. And why would any mermaid fall in love with a human? I mean, humans don’t even have tails! EWWW!
THE STORY OF MAPELLA
By Kiki Coral
Thousands of years ago near the South China Sea, a young mermaid named Mapella was born. Mapella traveled more than any merperson before her had ever dared. She loved seeing new places, but she also carved maps of everywhere she went. In the ancient mercity of Dao-Ming, visitors can still see the reliefs Mapella made. She was the first mapmaker, or cartographer, of the merpeople. She gave her name to the maps we still use today. Her traveling stopped when she was eaten by a tiger shark.
REFRAIN:
Let the water roar
Deep down we’re swimming along
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 1:
Shelly flips her tail
Racing, diving, chasing a whale
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 2:
Pearl likes to shine
Oh my Neptune, she looks so fine
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 3:
Shining Echo flips her tail
Backward and forward without fail
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 4:
Amazing Kiki
Far from home and floating so free
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
Shark,
the Sharpnose Sevengill
Shark, the sharpnose sevengill,
lived near to me
We swam together every day
and became the best of friends
Then someone told Shark
he should eat me
And now I miss him terribly
But our friendship had to end
Shark, the sharpnose sevengill,
lived near to me
I’ll always treasure our friendship
And hope someday he’ll see
That sharks and merfolks can be friends
One day it will be
But until that day I guess I’ll say,
“Shark, I miss you still.”
Author’s Note
THE OCEAN IS AN AMAZING place full of secrets. There are many places underwater that have yet to be investigated by humans. Maybe one day, explorers will find a mermaid band deep on the ocean floor. Read the next pages to find out about some other amazing ocean life. I hope you’ll let me know your favorite creature. You can write to me on Kids Talk at www.debbiedadey.com.
Swim free,
Debbie Dadey
Glossary
BARNACLE: A barnacle is a crustacean that sticks itself to boats or other creatures, like whales.
BATH SPONGE: The Mediterranean bath sponge is not common today because in the past, huge numbers were caught by humans and used for cleaning and bathing.
BLACK-LIP OYSTER: The black-lip pearl oyster begins life as a male and changes into a female! It sometimes produces black pearls.
COCONUT: The coconut grows on palm trees in warm climates on land. The coconut, shaped like a big brown soccer ball, has been known to get caught in ocean currents and travel great distances. It will float and it is waterproof. The inside of a coconut contains sweet liquid.
CORAL: Coral polyps are small, soft-bodied creatures that are related to jellyfish. Coral makes reefs by attaching itself to rocks and dividing. Some of the coral reefs on earth began growing fifty million years ago.
CONCH SHELL: Conch are a kind of marine mollusk that have a heavy spiral shell. In the past, jewelry makers used the shells to carve cameos.
GREAT WHITE SHARK: The great white shark is very smart and can grow up to twenty-four feet, as long as a telephone pole is tall.
HAGFISH: This long, eel-like fish can actually tie itself into knots. It does so quite often, in fact, to help it get rid of the slime that comes out of its pores.
KILLER WHALES: Killer whales (or orcas) are not whales at all, but dolphins. They live together in pods of about twenty for their entire life.
LEMON SEA SPONGE: This bright yellow sponge grows in shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean.
MANTA RAY: They are the largest rays in the ocean, and they are related to sharks. But they are not dangerous—they don’t have a stinging spine.
SABLEFISH: Adult sablefish are found in deep waters and sometimes live to be ninety years old!
SEA TURTLES: Sea turtles have been on the earth for 120 million years! Leatherback sea turtles can weigh more than two thousand pounds.
SEA WASP: The sea wasp is another name for the box jellyfish, which is the world’s most venomous marine animal. It lives near Australia.
SHARPNOSE SEVENGILL SHARK: This shark is on the endangered species list and lives in deep water. It usually eats squid, crustaceans, and fish near seabeds.
TIGER SHARK: The tiger shark is the second most dangerous shark to humans, after the great white. Tiger sharks will eat almost anything, even garbage. They like coastal waters.
WOLFFISH: This creepy-looking fish is usually found near rocky reefs in deep water. It grows new teeth every year.
Ocean Trip
ROCKY RIDGE WASN’T HAPPY. “Do we have to do another project?” he whined to his teacher. “Mrs. Karp, that’s not fair!”
In the first few weeks of the new school year at Trident Academy, Mrs. Karp’s third-grade class had already completed reports on famous merpeople and a project where they’d collected krill and shrimp. Every one of the twenty students hoped they wouldn’t have to do another big assignment.
Mrs. Karp smiled. “This assignment is different. We’re going on an ocean trip.”
Rocky and the rest of the class cheered. “Yes! Ocean trip!”
Kiki Coral gasped. But her mergirl friends Echo Reef and Shelly Siren clapped their hands and swished their tails. For many in the class, this would be their first ocean trip. They would leave classwork behind to learn in the deep-sea environment. “It’s about time we did something fun,” a mergirl named Pearl Swamp snapped.
“Where are we going, Mrs. Karp?” Kiki asked.
“An article in the Trident City Tide reported that a pod of whales is expected to be directly above Trident City tomorrow morning,” Mrs. Karp said. “We will visit them. In fact, Dr. Evan Mousteau will join us in a
few minutes to tell us about whales and even teach us a bit of whale language.”
Mrs. Karp continued, “I expect you to be courteous to Dr. Mousteau. After he leaves, we’ll go over surface safety rules. Your parents can feel secure that the Shark Patrol will be on the alert all morning, not only for sharks, but also for any sign of humans.”
Echo could barely speak. “Humans!” she whispered to Shelly and Kiki. “I’ve always wanted to see a real, live human. Maybe tomorrow will be my chance!” Everything about humans fascinated Echo.
“My parents have never let me go above water. Are you sure it’s safe?” Echo asked Mrs. Karp.
Mrs. Karp patted Echo on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we will not go if it’s not safe.”
Then Kiki shyly asked, “Which whale dialect will we be learning?”
Mrs. Karp raised her green eyebrows. “Excellent question. I wonder how many of you even know that whales talk to one another?”
No one raised their hand except Shelly. Kiki smiled at her.
“Since the visiting pod is made up of humpbacks, we will focus on the humpback whale dialect,” Mrs. Karp told the class.
Kiki nodded, still smiling, but in truth she was worried. Really worried.
Dr. Mousteau
DR. MOUSTEAU REMINDED Kiki of the bottlenose dolphins that lived near her home in the far-off waters near Asia. He had the same shiny bald head and long pointed noise. Even his eyes were round and black. Kiki wondered if Dr. Mousteau had twenty-five pairs of teeth in each jaw. When he opened his mouth, she got her answer: He had one big tooth in the center of his top gum. That was it.
“The humpback whale is a wondrous creature,” Dr. Mousteau told the third graders. “The pattern of white markings on the flukes and flippers is different on each and every whale. So no two whales are alike.”
Dr. Mousteau continued, “Adult humpbacks are quite large and weigh ten times more than a great white shark.”
“Those whales need to go on a diet,” Rocky blurted out.
Mrs. Karp frowned, but Dr. Mousteau didn’t seem to mind Rocky’s interruption. He went on, “As you might know, man is the only predator of whales. Thankfully, humans’ captures of whales in recent years have decreased. Still, the humpback population is about one-fifth of what it was hundreds of years ago.”
Dr. Mousteau reached into a bag and took out a thick piece of skin. “I’d like each of you to touch the specimen I’m passing around. This was taken from a whale that died naturally. I brought it for you to study.”
Dr. Mousteau gave the skin to Rocky, who touched and even sniffed it. Rocky tried to give it to Pearl, but she shook her head. “I don’t want to touch any disgusting dead whale. It has awful bumps and nasty barnacles on it.”
“That’s quite normal,” Dr. Mousteau said, taking the specimen and handing it to Shelly. “Every humpback has a long head with knobs such as these. If you didn’t clean yourselves thoroughly, you’d have barnacles too.”
“I had a barnacle one time,” Rocky said, “but my dad made me wash it off.”
Shelly felt the whale skin and tried to give it to Kiki, but Kiki’s eyes were glued to Dr. Mousteau. “Here, Kiki,” Shelly said, but Kiki wouldn’t look.
Debbie Dadey is the author and coauthor of one hundred and fifty children’s books, including the series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. A former teacher and librarian, Debbie now lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her wonderful husband and children. They live about two hours from the ocean and love to go there to look for mermaids. If you see any, let her know at www.debbiedadey.com.
