Story: Adventure at the Jersey Shore

They say that you can find adventure in your own backyard, and man was that point driven home the other day... on a trip to the beach! The sand was soaked with blood and I had a very close call with - well, let's start from the beginning, shall we?

It was Memorial Day weekend, and I headed to Spring Lake, NJ for some time at the beach. I was looking for a quiet place to put my towel when I immediately noticed something... different. I realised quickly that the water off to the side looked funny, in this space between a 2 foot sewer pipe that disappeared into the water and a stone jetty about 10 feet away from that. The water was brighter there, much brighter, so I dropped my stuff and sauntered forth to see why.

As I approached this tiny natural harbor the waves flashed bright silver where they met the shore, and getting closer still I saw dozens of large fish being tossed by the tide. They were alive, but did not look happy, and I wondered why they were just letting the tide push them around. A few feet away a seagull appeared to wonder the same thing, as he cocked his head at the fish, and danced away from each wave.

The fish were all between 9 to 12 inches, with bright silver and bright brown scales, and there must have been about 50 or more all within arms reach. In fact, calling over some sand urchins to see the fish, I borrowed one of their buckets and actually scooped one up... a big one at about 13 inches long. It flopped in the bucket wildly, so I went to release it, and then noticed the red mark on its back. I also noticed the seagull was looking at me kind of funny like, as if he thought I was mad to be standing ankle deep in the water surrounded by 50 unhappy fish. THEN I noticed the dark shadow swimming back and forth just behind the waves... a long dark shadow about 3 feet long that suddenly lunged at one of the fish in front of me and snapped it in half!

Well, I jumped out of the waves, the kids ran screaming down the beach, the seagull flapped its wings with excitement, and another shark-like creature made its appearance in the waves, with a flash of bright blue as it flipped through the piscene thrall and snapped the tail off of another fish.

So, a Nature Channel special was happening right in front of me, with quite a few lessons to be learned. First of all, if a seagull is unwilling to step into the water after free fish, there might be a reason for it! See, animals and birds aren't as dumb as some people think. The sharks were also pretty smart, since it became rather obvious that they corraled this school of fish into this natural tiny harbor, setting themselves up neatly for an easy buffet. One of the sharks was always on herding duty while the other went in for an easy snack. Neither was in a hurry, and the feeding frenzy went on for well over an hour, and only really begun when the fish were so exhausted they could hardly swim.

I have no idea if these were sharks or some kind of barracuda. Whatever they were, they were calculating, cool, and vicious, and I will be sure to think twice before wading in the surf again.

Today's travel lesson is this: you don't have to go far to get away from the ordinary. The next time you find yourself wanting to travel, but short on funds, go someplace not too far away, but where you don't get too often. Adventure is right around the corner!